On 5 June 2011, the torrential downpour brought on flash floods in several areas of Singapore. Among the areas affected where several stores along Orchard Road, as well as the basement of Tanglin Mall.
* Thumbnail image from The Straits Times
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We got 5 million Singaporeans to care about, and adopting certain flood prevention measures can be very expensive. How to finance that? Until we answer that question, who the hell cares about some 15-year old Indonesian? The fact that not more lives were lost means our system isn’t that bad
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@ inundated
The care & concern of citizens start with the basic consideration for the safety of the individual & for human life. If for example a playground/building design has proven (like the floods happening now) dangerous & even caused the loss of 1 life due to the design flaw, it matters not how much it costs to rectify the problem.
Unfortunately for u & (very) fortunately for us; we do not live in a 3rd world country where a human life is cheap or measured in $$$.
Based on ur screwed up logic, is it right that we shld not havr even waste a single dollar on drainage? since “drainage” of water typically follows in accordance to the geography of the land… We shld then not have developed “drainage/flood prone” areas since it is so “expensive” as u say to have a “proper” drainage system? So does that mean our govt to date has wasted & lost millions in developing such areas? Such monies could have been diverted for the “benefit” of us 5 million singaporeans! (btw, there are only abt 4 million singaporeans)
Ya.. Benefit us but that means we must row boat to work…
U shld also answer this question urself: something that had not happened in 50yrs is now happening exertions there is heavy downpour, can u gaurantee that it will not get worse year by year?
Benefit 5 million singaporeans by not addressing flood issues in the city… Seems like the proverbial argument between the brain & the anus on who is more superior.. Wait until ur anus stop working, even with Einstein brain also no use…
This leads me to the next question; why bother abt HFMD & other diseases? Only 10-20 ppl per year die what.. Out of 5 million ppl… We have to take care of the 5 million leh. Why waste money on preventative action?
Siao… No joke.
Have $8 billion to build expressway, but no dough to build drainage?
The pattern of government is the same.
It will find an excuse and blame it on anything other than themselves despite the obvious lack of KPIs, transparency and accountability.
Now, what have we heard so far? Yaccob said it is a freak flood once in 40 years.
VB now says it is the planning laws that need change.
Actual cause of flooding – human negligence, failure to look at consequences of creating a barrage, lack of foresight and studies relating to speed of water flow in the waterways enclosed by the barrage.
So far, S$6 billions have already been spent to create a deep tunnel drainage system. Engineers and experts fail to account for the slowing down of drainage into the marina causing unprecedented flooding to Orchard Road and other areas.
al is right. Undo what has been done. The flood will be solved.
What is the use of spending more S$ bils if it is only to transfer the flood to other surrounding areas.
So many places seem to be flooded in Singapore. Shops and houses are badly affected and people have lost a lot of money. But thanks to the clever engineering of the government that ERPs gangtries are not flooded and so ERP collections will continue to flow in unaffected. But sorry for the motorists, just continue to pay and pay.
The root course of the flooding laid on the Marina Barrage, just demolished it or lower it gate height, the problem will solve by itself.
PUB is really a Pretty Useless Board. According to this CNA report,
“For that particular day, what happened was that the rate of increase for the water was pretty high; it was so high that it bypassed the trigger points of 75% and 90% levels. So the SMS alert was not sent,” said PUB’s director for infocomm department, Peng Kah Poh.
PUB says it has already tweaked the system, such that it will start triggering SMS alerts if water levels hit 100%.
Can u imagine anything more ludicrous than this? Any primary school kids will tell you that 100% is more than 75% and 90%. If it is beyond 75% and even 90%, surely there should be two SMS alerts already. How could it have “bypassed” the 75% and 90% mark? What will happen if flooding exceed 100% mark? Then another software glitch?
Orchard Road Business Association (ORBA) and affected vendors should consider suing PUB for losses sustained.
It seems that the PUB may have either developed in-house or outsource a USELESS water level sensing system that will NOT work in real cases. My worry is that if they cannot even get this to work, how can we expect the review of the drainage system to come up with the right recommendations???
Make more recreatinal ponds and
Put2Cherry trees in the middle.
3/4 of Orchad Road is flooding, my mom say opposite of ION, Wheelock flood. I wonder if cars are floating…..
Controllable
Let’s talk about common sense. Am no great
Engineer, but know that the water level of the Marina Barage must be higher than the sea level, otherwise when they open the floodgates to release excess water, salty sea water will rush into the Barage instead. And when water level is at a high level, this man-made dam’s capacity to hold intense rainwater is limited, leading to flash flood inland.
Think why there is no Orchard Road floods
before the Barage was built, before the Ion and 313 Somerset buildings were built. So 1+1+1 = 3. Bingo. Flash Floods
in Orchard Road. And not no amount of Engineering would prevent Floods.
It’s Big Ego and loss of face that is at stake.
PUB said on 9.6.2011 on channel 8 they will release extra water within the marina out to the Sea to offset against extra rainfall during intense rains.
When such torrential rainfall occurs, will it not be too late to do so?
How fast can the pump work or gate release to offset the extra rainfalls over such large areas.
Isn’t a preset safety-margin in barrage-gate holding level be more effective?
Traditionally, the sea level at high tide is never higher than the lowest holding level at the barrage.
So there should be no problem with setting an optimal lowest holding level to prevent accident of flooding to Orchard Road and other areas.
A simple holding/high tide setting of barrage relative to highest tide sea level will solve the problem.
There is no need to do all the expensive digging and widening of waterways which will cost billions and a lot of inconvenience with no guarantee to solve problems.
VB will do better based on such commonsense approach rather than trying to distract real problems by talking about all the re-planning of laws on construction and development.
The continued presence of Khoo Teng Chye at the helm of PUB, enjoying its attendant perks and a million dollar emolument despite his dismal performance is not an isolated incident in that organization.
Lee Ek Tieng (LET) was Chairman of PUB from 1978 to 2000. It was under his charge, that his Deputy CEO, Choy Hon Tim was charged in 1995 for corruption, to the tune of $13.8 million, the largest in Singapore’s history. Choy had been taking kickbacks from PUB contractors over 18 years, right under the nose of Lee Ek Tieng. Chairman Lee was a avid golfer, with handicap honed to the low teens. For years, Choy was a regular ‘kaki’ in LET’s golfing team, going on business trips together with golf thrown in. After Choy’s departure for Changi Prison, Lee Ek Tieng remained as PUB chief, enjoying all the trappings & perks befitting a chairman, for another 4 years before moving over to GIC as Group Managing Director.
He presided at GIC for 18 1ong years. From publicly reported articles, under his stewardship, GIC made certain ill-timed investments in hotels in the UK, golf course in Canada, banks and properties in US, etc. Meanwhile, he introduced a golfing culture into GIC, replete with golf days, tournaments, a LET cup for the best golfer. Combining business trips with tee-offs at the toniest golf clubs worldwide was standard SOP. So pervasive was the golfing ethos that the prevalent joke then was that an officer’s handicap was more determinative for promotion than his portfolio performance. It was again under Lee’s stewardship that 3 senior GIC traders were charged with insider trading in 2004. Golfing aficionados, the trio was merely suspended for a short period without pay.
Lee Ek Tieng’s invincibility springs from his achievement of cleaning the Singapore River so fish can live, during his early PUB days. He was set for life as LKY personally praised him profusely in his book, From Third World to First. He was awarded a Gold Medal, and later made Head of the Civil Service. As recently as Oct 2010, Lee Wei Ling paid a warm tribute to him in a Sunday Times article.
Attaining such eminence, you have a halo and can do no wrong. Khoo Teng Chye follows in that august tradition. In lieu of cleaning the Singapore River, he completed the Marina Barrage. Just like the cleaning of the Singapore River, the Marina Barrage project was mooted and launched by LKY personally. For this, Khoo has represented PUB to receive dozens of awards. Like his mentor Lee Ek Tieng, Khoo has also polished his golf handicap with an august coterie of ministers and corporate chiefs.
One shudders in wondering if this halo amongst the priesthood of elite civil servants extends across the board. The pernicious consequence of such unhealthy camaraderie between the ruling elite and its protected administrators engenders a mutual looking after each other’s turf and a mutual back-scratching ethos. This incest is already corroding the very moral & ethical fabric of the way Singapore should be governed. It is evident for all to behold, as in the obfuscatory & self righteous attitude of the PUB’s Khoo in the face of the unresolved flooding of Orchard/Tanglin shows. His confidence in his protected & invulnerable status gives him that incorrigble smugness which lesser Singaporeans find appalling to stomach.
The challenge for LHL is if he can cut the Gordian Knot by ending once and for all this protected privilege of this holy priesthood.
If Marina Barrage is indeed the problem, VB and Khoo Teng Chye will surely cover-up to not endanger themselves. This was LKL’s project. It won numerous awards. Khoo Teng Chye got a National Day medal. Probably a hefty pay raise too. KTC would never ever contemplate any flaw in Marina Barrage. You can bet that stop-gap, one-off and only expedient measures will be adopted, as we are seeing now.
From Khoo Dude (quote):
One shudders in wondering if this halo amongst the priesthood of elite civil servants extends across the board. The pernicious consequence of such unhealthy camaraderie between the ruling elite and its protected administrators engenders a mutual looking after each other’s turf and a mutual back-scratching ethos. This incest is already corroding the very moral & ethical fabric of the way Singapore should be governed. It is evident for all to behold, as in the obfuscatory & self righteous attitude of the PUB’s Khoo in the face of the unresolved flooding of Orchard/Tanglin shows. His confidence in his protected & invulnerable status gives him that incorrigble smugness which lesser Singaporeans find appalling to stomach.
The challenge for LHL is if he can cut the Gordian Knot by ending once and for all this protected privilege of this holy priesthood.
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I agree 100%. This brotherhood of protected privilege stems from around 10-15 yrs ago, when the interests of the new PAP government and the people subtly diverge. To hike its own pay, the PAP government under the flimsy pretext of high pay to attract & retain talent also boosted the pay of the elite administrative service & GLC chieftains to such an extent that it opened a yawning gap between them and the ordinary Singaporeans. This egregious type of elitism once taken root, as it has by now, binds the chieftains of the civil service, GLC CEOs and PAP bosses tightly in a web of vested interests. Not surprisingly, policy errors and missteps are quickly rationalized, covered up or worst shifted to entities outside their fabled protected ring. Needless to say, we are now beginning to see the fruits of policies that did not benefit a large segment of the population.
Apart from the golfing extravaganzas of Khoo Teng Chye and Lee Ek Tieng, one can recall with revulsion too the $45,000 French cooking class that former Ministry of Environment chief Tan Yong Soon attended in France. He did this in the depth of the 2008 global recession and nonchalantly wrote about it as a travalogue in the papers. He left MOE shortly, to be safely ensconced as head of the National Climate Secretariat, under the PM’s Office. If not for the current climate, he would emerge as the CEO of another GLC.
hmmm, i am quite worried & clueless as to what i should do if i am alerted about an impending flash flood.
should S’poreans adopt a flashflood drill like Japan’s tsunami drill? would all building owners allow public entry in times “emergency”, when people seek the nearest higher ground?
there are lots of practical issues that need to be addressed, & its worrying since people who are blind, on wheel chairs or having difficulty walking fast mey be caught in the flood.
i predict ideas from the public will be sought yet again. authorities seem to have an easy life getting paid waiting for answer to come to them…
=/
One would have thought that the root cause of flooding is traceable to the marina holding back rainwater entering the marina causing slowing down of flow of rainwater causing flooding.
Therefore it is more important to monitor the marina barrage water-holding level.
If the barrage holding level increases to quickly, it signifies more rainwater entering the marina.
It does not make sense to monitor the waterway water level without activating the release gates to let the extra rainfall out of the barrage to the sea.
Why so afraid to tell the truth as it is?
Now, instead of getting the highly overpaid senior engineers to lower the barrage water holding gate, the easy way out is to spend more monies to absorb minister of all future blames like constructing a new waterway to discharge rain water from Orchard Road directly to the sea.
If this latter solution is really that feasible, isn’t the sea level at the Barrage just as good to discharge to?
Why must engineer find another route to discharge it too when sea levels at all outlet to sea remain basically the same.
Actually tanglin mall basement makes a good drainage and storage for freak flood. :)
It is so funny.
After telling the whoe world how successful is our Marina Barrage, so many governments in the world want to engage our PUB guys to do similar project.
Now VB is saying PUB is not that great and is trying to look for outside consultants to do the relevant studies to solve the barrage flooding problem without with a big over-blown budget.
Going by his total revamp of planning and building new waterways to circumvent the flooding problems caused by the barrage, a few billions may not be enough – not to mention whether flooding will be solved.
It don’t make dollar and cents to spend billions to solve the freak flood in orchard road (tanglin mall area). It is not feasible.
Spending billions to solve problems is always a welcome news for the experts/consultants.
It making money time:(
when a problem is created, GDP goes up.
when money is spent on attempting to solve the problem, GDP oso go up.
& if the problem still isn’t solved, be prepared for a sequel (maybe 2 or even 3 or more…) like blockbuster movies. & like blockbuster movies, those “solutions” will have blockbusting record budget…
-.-”
have u guys take a free tour to Marina Barrage ? Once u been there, u will know IT is not Marina Barrage.
Dont act smart, pple will just laugh at your ignorance.
A bigger than usual salary makes a person bad for his duties. Such astronomical salaries paid to Ministers and civil servants down the line make them raving mad.
To safeguard this largesse forever, they harness all State Institutions to do their bidding. The most effective in protecting their interests is the ISD for mafia type repression and the judges for bankrupting those who talk bad about them. Even elite lawyers firms are into the game as they also can commandeer the State’s standing army of Police and judges to get things done for their political friends and masters.
These chaps are beyond things like mere floods.
This crop of Ministers are fantastic at passing the buck. Whatever problem occurs, they would say “we are taking the matter seriously.” At his most serious Ibrahim Yakoop says that the flood in Orchard Road is caused by a drain choke, I knew then we have a taichee king for an environmental Minister. He wants to put the blame on the cleaning contractor. There is no culture of taking responsibility among these exceptionally able and noble group of bluffers.I do not mean that he has to kill himself like the Japanese would do. I mean he should at least refer to scientific and technical observations. He is no better than any housewife sweeping away the flood waters, yet he earns millions per year. A big salary is bad for the attitude towards responsibility.An astronomical salary, topping even those officeholders in superpower Nations makes them raving mad.
Minister Yaccob said the Orchard Road flood is a freak 50 year-once flood.
Minister Vivian said it is caused by change of weather condition?
Now expert consultants have been appointed because both ministers do not know the real cause or causes of flood.
Expert consultants being interested in their fees of course cannot be expected to be truthful otherwise they will lose their fees.
Remedial works are likely to be high as the larger the remedial works the higher will be the fees.
They are unlikely to go for the simplest solution of rectifying the Marina Barrage’s fine-tuning of its holding level.
Quite likely they will deny Orchard Road floods as caused by the construction of the barrage and go for expensive widening of existing waterways with channeling of rainfalls to new sea outlet.(materially of little difference as sea levels at both new outlets and barrage are basically the same)
Singapore is a tiny Island Country, we are supposed to have the world’s best trying to solve the flood problem and still having problems.
Are these problems so difficult to solve that we are always blaming on the ACT OF GOD
Blame it on the astounding salaries which cause madness.