Loh, here is a good example of transparency as shown by Singapore's news media, www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singapore local news/view/1064146/1/.html. This is a good start but to be caught unprepared is not excusable and points to inexcusable negligence, which means the head of PUB should be fired if he doesn't resign. I think modern Singapore means business and I expect it will step in revamp PUB, otherwise it will more of the same thing. For one thing, how can PUB allow yearly flooding of the basements in the heart of Singapore, as claimed by shop owners?
Drain design: I am not a chartered Engineer but have worked with many. Engineers design drains and roads based on a calculation called "Rate of Return". Eg. drains and channels may be designed for 20 ,40, 200 year returns. A 20 year return means a drain large enough to discharge water at rainfall levels at the worst encountered every 20 years, 40 year for the worst in 40 years etc. If you design drainage to cater for the worst rainfall encountered in the last 200 years it will be large enough to be a river. The same principle applies to road traffic, that's why all roads have reserves for future widening to cater for traffic increase or using airspace above in the form of flyovers. Freak weather caused by intense downpours yet to be encountered in the last few decades can lead to slower discharge and flooding and bottlenecks, it could be caused by global warming, therefore the emphasis in Singapore for a Green Environment.KL had been hit by this problem a decade ago when the whole of Merdeka Square was submerged about a decade ago. KL solved this problem by constructing a famous underground "Smart Tunnel " which could be used for traffic diversion, but in times of intense rainfall, the tunnel is closed to traffic and is used to discharge surplus water to the sea.I think anyone interested in the Smart Tunnel project can check out the "Sunway Group" website. The tunnel equipment I think were re-built from dismantled parts of the machines used in the England/France Chunnel.
But the shop owners are complaining about their basements being flooded year after year. The recent great flood comes once in a while but something must not be right when basements get flooded every year. Instead of waiting for the PUB to do something about basement flooding shop owners might as well design and get their own pumping equipment to get rid of this annual nuisance. If the PUB cannot do it then self-help is the only solution.
What did someone once quoted about Henry Kissinger' Academic" criticism and not putting your money where your mouth is? I think watching football is more fun than mocking others. Anyway flash floods in city centres are common enough I have seen enough in the UK when I lived there. Most of the time it could be overdevelopment and drainage systems not upgraded to suit new developments and is a very complex Town Planning and Environmental problem everywhere. it is not about looking for scapegoats but upgrading of infrastructure.Do you blame the government everytime a quite narrow road gets jammed once in a while when there is an occasional gathering causing a traffic jam? Its about risk and safety factors in Town Planning and feasibility of solutions.
You are so smart.. learned something from your comment. I did watch the NatGeo documentary about the smart tunnel. Its just amazing how they did that. At times i wondered how the tunnel will looked like when its it closed if there is a Super Heavy downpour. As i drove in the tunnel.. i wonder how high the water can go up to. How much do you think it can hold the amount of water? 40yrs return? 100yrs return?
If you visit KL and stay in Jalan Sultan Ismail if you are unlucky you will find sometimes that the basement and the cars will be flooded once in a while. I think the area is far from the smart tunnel. If you stay in Kuching, where the Sarawak river is below sea level everytime the tide is high the sea backflows into the river and floods the city. Till today they have not worked out a solution other than abandoning the city. Maybe we can read some newpapers rather than consult experts and judge whether the government is to blame.
I'm not smart, its my line of work, I have been managing developments for decades in KL. The smart tunnel acts like an alternate River Klang/Gombalk channeling water to the sea. River Klang is the only river discharging water from the Klang valley into the sea. Smart tunnel is actually in 3 levels or storeys. Anyone who wants to know more about never ending flooding problems has only to study a documentary on Venice.
Besides that great flood there are small fry retailers at Lucky Plaza who claim their basements experience at least once, sometimes twice, yearly floods. And they are not caused by great once in a lifetime giant rains, just the normal rains year in year out. Surely, this can't go on? Is the PUB aware of this? Perhaps Loh may want to see this anomaly resolved once and for all. Otherwise it sticks out like a sore thumb, right in the heart of Orchard Road.
Before you talk about pumps and jumping to conclusions, you haven't even studied the drainage system, is it a system of open channels, pipe culverts, box culverts or underground sewers? All different designs have different maintenance problems. It is not about pumping basements, LRT stations in KL are below the Klang river level but they have a series of gates to close the basements everytime there is a flood. Basements designed below flood levels without gates to preventing flooding are archaic designs. Here in this forum we have gods, better Engineers than Engineers.
Come on we are talking about modern Singapore. If New Orleans can do it-and they are below sea level for as far as the eye can see-Singapore surely also can!
Wow we have nonSingaporeans here more Singaporean than Singaporeans waiting for Chenhu to solve all their problems. Whats that the Australian Minister of Innovation said about Australian businesses : " Businesses like to Privatise their profits and Socialise their losses." Basements falling below flood level are always susceptible to flash floods, one solution is to redesign basements and at the same time improve public infrastructure. I think Insurance companies will shy away from insuring owners from claims if their basements are not properly constructed.
What did Henry Kisisnger say: Academic criticism" and putting your money where your mouth is, say something constructive and credible.Your talents are all wasted you should join the football crowds shouting for their teams in the world cup.
The Chinese have a saying "Dui Niu Dan Ching". No matter what logic is applied the irrational person has only one agenda, to indulge in his favorite bashing.
How long can new Orleans stand if another KAtrina strikes? Everywhere is sinking, KL, Venice, Shanghai.. im not sure about Singapore if the land is sinking.
We are talking about a different thing in New Orleans.Even in the smart tunnel we need several acres of lake to temporarily store the water before it is slowly discharged into the sea. We call these lakes sedimentation basins which can also be used for recreation ,these basins are somewhere in Shah Alam. In the case of Singapore the baements are acting as sedimentation ponds.The situation looks as if Orchard road is simply low lying. I neverknew until now that the Singapore is Government is so naive and thick, Drains blocked and vegetation growing and flooding year after year as claimed by their papers and they cannot clear the drains, kudos for enlightening me on that! Boooo! I am sure even with the flood levels being low and shortage of land to create lake in Orchard road the Singapore government will invent Newton's 4th law of physics, "water NEVER always finds its own level"
You have this unhealthy habit of referring to me to do this and to do that in many of your unnecessary comments. What do you think I am? The government or "experts" like you? Have you ever considered that you are sticking out worse than a sore thumb? Don't worry about such matters in Singapore. We have more knowledgeable people than you think. Otherwise we would not have survived so well after independence and made world headlines now and then.
KL is not sinking, it is a flat valley surrounded by hills discharging water downhill. most of it is channeled thru Gombak and Klang rivers to the sea. Development and man-made structures create a lot of obstructions slowing down the flow to the sea. I do not know the topo of Singapore to be able to comment. Some experts claim that the newspapers they read claim that their government is very stupid in not cleaning the drains of debris and causing flooding every year. Then they claim that the floods have been occuring yearly in recent times and not in the past and deny any correlation with climatic changes and development patterns. Then the people the experts are fighting for are so smart they build structures below flood levels ,never barricade them and claim chenghu never does anything for them.Wow they probably never studied physics before! WE are better in Malaysia we have first world infrastructure but as you can clearly see from this forum people with 3rd world mentality with some sinister agenda. Shame on you Singapore, you must really have ill-treated older Malaysians when they were there so much so they laugh at you when you drown. What did you do ,make them drink soap water and then stomp on them?
Some of them might have encountered bad experiences in Spore so they feel the need to take 'revenge'. Or some just can't bear to see tiny Spore getting prosperous and free of major calamities. However history has changed and even now the leaders of the two countries find it to the best of their interest to get together and cooperate, especially in the economic area. But our so-called expert has been away during the best part of his life in I believe a foreign country to escape from perhaps further bad experiences in his home country. No wonder he can be an arm-chair critic, thinking he could be safe and free from reprisals.
Maybe they should be sent free copies of this video : <object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Rkc_M-18dIo&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Rkc_M-18dIo&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>
