Tag: Floods

Random Discourse – Floods & Engineering

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I found the following letter to the ST Forum while going through this forum thread on ION Orchard:

Preserve open space at Orchard MRT station
25 Aug 05

In his National Day Rally speech, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong spoke at length about the development of the Orchard Road, Bras Basah Road and Bugis Junction areas.

Old Photo

Orchard MRT (pre-ION Orchard days)

In particular, he said that the development of the Bras Basah Road area with the relocation of Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts and Singapore Management University there was to bring back students to re-create the buzz which he remembered as his old school was in that area.

However, what has happened to the old buildings there? They have become museums, and a landmark cathedral has been converted to serve as restaurants and pubs.

PM Lee presented a slide showing an imposing tower being built on the green hill behind Orchard MRT station. Would the prime minister in 40 years’ time then decide that there is not enough open space in the Orchard Road area and have a few obsolete buildings torn down?

Take New York, one of the cities PM Lee mentioned. Smack in the centre of Manhattan Island is prime property, ideal for all sorts of buildings, yet the early town planners literally carved out a huge section of the city for Central Park. In the Singaporean context, it would be considered a waste.

But it is not. The open space that is now Ngee Ann City is lost. The open space that was behind Wisma Atria is lost. The open space between Bras Basah Road and Stamford Road is lost. The Botanic Gardens is too inaccessible from Orchard Road.

The Orchard MRT station’s open space should be preserved. Must everything prime be built upon? Let us learn from the lessons of the evacuation of the Bras Basah Road area.

Michael Loh Yik Ming

Ultimately, the Urban Redevelopment Authority [URA] awarded that open space to a group led by CapitaLand Ltd which submitted the top bid of S$1.38 billion. A follow-up post revealed that the developers need to borrow S$1.56 billion in their bid to build Orchard Road’s biggest monument to consumerism. I wonder whether all of that money is subjected to GST. *chuckles*

Anyway, the PUB first blamed a blockage at the culvert (or whatever) in the Stamford Canal for the flood on June 16. When it flooded again on July 17, it then declared that even the capacity of the canal is found wanting. While the canal is an integral part of Orchard Road’s drainage system, ensuring that the canal is free from obstruction and improving its capacity may not be the complete solution to the problem. After all, the entire problem may not actually lie with the Stamford Canal itself. Is the PUB ignoring the entire system of drains feeding into it, and also the effect of surrounding developments to the flow of water into the canal? (I’ll get to that in awhile.)

Of course, it is not surprising that some have fingered ION Orchard as the cause of the recent Orchard Floods. I agree with them somewhat, since I believe that the small knoll originally in its place (on top of Orchard MRT Station) has a part to play in restricting the flow of water towards the Orchard Road / Scotts Road / Patterson Road junction. However, ION Orchard is only part of the problem.

Moving along Orchard Road, one would notice that there are several other notable changes as well, and the majority of them happened along a rare unconcealed stretch of the mostly concealed Stamford Canal. First of all, the redevelopment of the 30-year-old UOL Building. Next, Specialists’ Center and Hotel Phoenix is also redeveloped and two plots beside it which were previously car parks are now Orchard Central and 313 Somerset. Orchard Central in specific has concealed even more of the Stamford Canal. (See the combined screen shots taken from Google Earth below).


Click for full sized

Just as I am sure the sale of that 2 small plots for building 313 Somerset and Orchard Central would have put at least another billion into the government’s gahmen’s coffers, I dare wager that if there had been no changes to the surrounding area in the past 10 years, a well maintained and unobstructed Stamford Canal would probably have drained water at its designated capacity and kept the entire Orchard Road area dry.

In fact, forummer y2koh in this thread somewhat echoed the same opinion (though our conclusions are very different). He wrote that the reason for all these ‘flash floods’ (or ‘freak floods’) in any area may perhaps be the result of all the new property development in the vicinity. A few areas like Telok Kurau, Katong, Upper Thomson, Bt Timah, Balestier Road etc were mentioned to emphasise the point. I would like to add another: Commonwealth Avenue.

Now, anyone who regularly take a westbound MRT train towards Joo Koon will notice that the open field before Faith Methodist Church is now a multi-storey car park, and the old Tanglin Tech school compound is now several blocks of 40-storey HDB apartments. There used to be a large uncovered monsoon drain behind that car park, but it is now concealed to expand Tanglin Halt Road. (See the combined screen shots of the area taken from Google Earth.)


Click for full sized

Guess what? Not long after these HDB ‘skyscrapers’ were completed (around 2007), Commonwealth Avenue was flooded in 2008 according to these videos I found on Youtube [1] [2]. So the assertion that the cause of all these floods have very little to do with climate change or global warming maybe right.

Bearing that in mind, I’ll like to respond to a comment Lao Lee recently made regarding the floods before I end this post. I quote:

At the same time, whatever we do when we get extraordinary rains like we had recently, no amount of engineering can prevent flooding.

There’s a limited amount of space that’s been dug underground, limited amount of space you can run off for canals and if you have an extraordinary rainfall, well you got to prepare for it.

Somethings are beyond (that); it’s an act of God unless you want to lose half the roads and have canals.” – Lao Lee, 21-07-2010

I agree absolutely with Lao Lee that no amount of engineering can prevent all these floods, because no engineering may actually be required at all. Lao Lee is also right that we may have to lose half the roads for drains to alleviate the problem… in my opinion those roads which the pea-brains in the PWD or whatever had built on top of exposed monsoon / storm drains and canals! Well, perhaps we never needed those roads in the first place if the goons in the LTA can stop getting high from all the *ka-chings* coming from the COEs and ERP gantries.

Old Photo

313 Somerset construction site

Anyway, I have a rather simplistic view of this entire matter. In my opinion, if the Stamford Canal is blocked the immediate area upstream of the blockage will be inundated first. Otherwise, Malaysia’s claim that the floods in the upper reaches of Sungai Johor was the result of Singapore’s land reclamation around Pulau Tekong would actually be credible!

Next, if Stamford Canal is over-capacity, wouldn’t flooding occur along the banks where it is not concealed – i.e. parts of Somerset Road near UOL Building or parts of Orchard Road after Plaza Singapura? Is the area between Liat ‘JiaLat’ Towers and Lucky Plaza anywhere near the blocked culvert or any unconcealed portions of Stamford Canal?

My limited knowledge of water dynamics tells me that water always flow along the easiest path towards the lowest point. In my opinion, when 313 Orchard and Orchard Central were still nothing more but car parks, water flows unimpeded from Orchard Road (through them) into Stamford Canal. If not, they would have at least served the function of sinks (like the car park outside the KTM Station at Tanjong Pagar) for some of the run offs coming from Orchard Road itself. Now that 313 Orchard and Orchard Central has taken up the usual path that the water will take, it will simply flow along the widest open stretch in that area – Orchard Road itself – towards the lowest point in that area, the junction of Orchard Road / Scotts Road / Patterson Road. Even though I am not a civil engineer and I could be wrong about this, my opinion is that Orchard Road itself now serves as a shallow ‘instant storm drain’ for some of that water because it can’t find a better place to go!

Old Photo

Tanglin Halt monsoon drain: concealment underway

To emphasise my point, I’ll talk about Commonwealth Avenue again. With the open field now a multi-storey car park and part of the monsoon train concealed, most of the run off now end up in and overwhelm the 2-decade-old drains along Commonwealth Avenue. When overwhelmed, water that previously drains off from Commonwealth Avenue can go nowhere else except the road itself.

Simply put, the recent rains are not extraordinary. The meteorological services has not shown us that rainfall has hit a historical new high. The only engineering we need to look into, is all that mindless ‘civil engineering’ as a result of the endless property development in Singapore. All of these craps that the Tali-PAP gahmen and the so-called top talent multi-million mini$ter$ have given to Singaporeans are simply lame. When no serious study has been committed to look into the problem, it is difficult to believe any of their statements hold any water at all!

For too long has the Tali-PAP gahmen been short on accountability and grossly overpaid. Now it even dared to redefine its own ‘job description’ and tried to worm itself out of part of the job that is expected of them with nothing more than mere words that is not backed up with any concrete evidence. It is way past due time for a ‘regime change’ at the ballot box. After all, as an employee I would be fired by my boss if I can choose to do only the part of the job I liked (or do best) and disregard the rest. That, is obviously what this gahmen is now doing with regard to the floods.

Random Discourse – Floods & A Handcuffed Reporter

2 comments

It was quite shocking when I saw this on Saturday’s evening tabloids. It’s not the reporter who got handcuffed that got my attention (though I’ll get back to that in awhile) but the so-called freak floods that happens every fifty years or so has happened again in less than fifty days. It’s not only the usual places like Bukit Timah that is flooded but Orchard, and it was exactly one month ago that Orchard Road turned into Sungei Orchard.

If God Himself is making a statement that He objects to being blamed for the floods, He certainly has a sense of humor. Though those who have a part to play and has suffered in His current ‘drama’ would hardly find it humorous.

I felt especially sorry for Wendy’s, which is under renovation after incurring S$500,000 in damages from last month’s flood. It was once again submerged in waist-deep water. Liat Towers clearly need to get some civil engineers in to study the viability of installing some kind of pump system to pump the water out into the sewage system during heavy rain since it is no use pumping back onto the drainage system when it has overflowed. I am actually tempted to ask the meteorological services to provide the public past records in which the same amount of rainfall was experienced, so we can see for ourselves whether similar flooding has occurred. Just why has our local press not taken the initiative to do this for our information once again points to the sub-par journalism standards in this country. It makes one wonder whether revealing the historical records would put certain departments or mini$tries or people in a very difficult position – such as revealing that the storms causing these so called ‘freak floods’ are not so uncommon after all. In fact, a rather bad tropical storm called Vamei hit us back in December 2001 and I remember that it went on raining for days. None of us were even informed we were hit by one of the worst storms in the history of Singapore and according to these records, Vamei was even classified as a Typhoon before it landed in Johor. Most of us probably still reported to work that day and I recalled seeing many ruined umbrellas in the trash can outside the office building one particular morning. Was there any floods in Orchard then? I have extracted the data related to Vamei from the site for easy reference (see below).


To understand the data format click here.

Just what excuse will Yaacob Ibrahim give this time round after the PUB cleared the blockage at that culvert or whatever? Perhaps some contractor didn’t do a good job, eh? After being paid a million dollars for his alleged talent, the million dollar mini$ter cannot expect us to be forgiving or patient in the face of such repeated fiascos. He and the well paid civil servants serpents under him do not need me to tell them to quit blaming the ‘freak weather’ for all these woes and instead take a hard look at the change of landscape in those areas and do a detailed study on what effect those changes brought to the area. To quote one of the tenants of Delfi Orchard, Ms Shanta Sundarason:

“So much for the ‘once in 50 years freak flood’ along Orchard Road. It would be nice for the problem to be addressed and dealt with, rather than a sweeping statement from the ministry.”

Singaporeans should give Shanta Sundarason a standing ovation for being forthright even though her response is still rather mild. In ancient China, the reason for the occurrence of such disasters is obvious: those in power has lost the Mandate of Heaven and until they atone for all their sins, the punishment will continue. Do not let Heaven wait too long, for when it makes the decision to pass the Mandate to another the reckoning that follow will definitely not be pleasant.

In ancient Japan, I will have given the mini$ter a katana, and he can use any public park for his final act of atonement (in traditional samurai fashion) to his dismal failure. In modern days however, there would normally be an outrage and a loud outcry for blood. When the disaster relief effort was badly managed after Typhoon Morakot hit Taiwan in 8 Aug 2009, the entire cabinet there subsequently resigned. In Singapore, all the people can do is complain (or make #FAIL posters, or make songs about it) and then just dream on. We can’t even get the responsible mini$try to admit to the failure and we can definitely forget about even getting the mini$ter in charge of it to be accountable.

From the escape of Mas Selamat to the losses suffered by town councils ‘investing’ their sinking funds, from the failure to control runaway property prices to failure to successfully deal with our public transport and traffic woes, the accountability we have gotten from the highest levels here is as good as a big fat zero. When one considers that being accountable does not seem to be part of the requirement, I am tempted to agree with a Dr. Ng Eng Hen Ng Eng Eng that all our mini$ter$ are value for money even while some might say we should pay them lesser because of that.

This is the kind of caring and responsible government gahmen we are getting. To them, good economic performance and economic indicators is all about good governance. The other things are deemed insignificant. That is not a surprise since economic indicators would be the justification to the mini$ter$ own remuneration! It probably never occurred to them that even though a good economy ensure jobs for most people and indirectly the economic well being of Singaporeans, there is more to living than just having a job and money to go around. If economic performance the only indicator on how well this country is run, we should do away with all the other ministries except one – the one who will make the economic policies and ‘run’ the economy.

Now, let me get back to the part about the poor reporter. From what I understand, anybody convicted of ‘interfering’ with the police carrying out its ‘public duty’ will be sentenced to a jail term no less than three years or fined up to $2,500 or both. However, I have yet to find an official press statement (under ‘News Releases’) on the Singapore Police Force website on this matter even though the Temasek Review claimed that such a statement has been released. Perhaps I was looking at the wrong place though I would have expected this well established people journalist site to have linked the press statement for our reference.

It makes me wonder if the poor sod was dealt with that way as a subtle warning to all the ‘people journalists’ out there that those who report on news that is negative to Singapore’s image should desist ‘for their own good’. After all, I see no reason why the Lianhe Wanbao [联合晚报] reporter Wu Qing Shun [吴庆顺] should be treated that way from the newspaper report.

The newspaper report cited that Wu arrived at an affected area along Upper Bukit Timah around 7am. When Wu attempted to find a better angle to take a photo of a vehicle trapped in the flood he was stopped by a police officer. Even though he has politely asked to take one more photo, the police officer handcuffed him and threatened to take him to the station. According to an article on the Temasek Review, the police claimed that Mr Wu was handcuffed as he was posing a ‘danger’ to himself and others. He was released after ‘assessment’ which confirmed that he would not ‘hinder’ the police’s ‘rescue operations’.

There is a major contradiction between the newspaper report and the article on the Temasek Review – i.e. the newspaper report did not indicate that Wu was posing any danger to anyone or himself while the Temasek Review reference to a police release spoke about Wu endangering his own life and that of others. What sort of ‘danger’ has Wu placed himself and other people in? Unless Wu was already in a position of grave danger, the police officer should spend more time explaining why he should desist and leave. Was Wu already way ahead into a dangerous position and the police officer has moved forward to advise Wu to move back to somewhere safer? After all, if Wu was handcuffed because he is in a position where was posing a ‘danger’ to himself and others, then the police officer is also in danger and he has every right to use limited force to not just safeguard the life of Wu but that of himself.

Beside that, I am under the impression that all rescue operations were conducted by the SCDF (Singapore Civil Defense Force) and not the police. It was my understanding that the job of the police to cordon off any dangerous areas from the general public so this so-called police release is rather puzzling. That is the reason why I am making such a fuss over the linking of the police’s press release.

At this moment, I find both of these reports equally deplorable as they do not really give the general public the necessary and important information. It has left the public with more questions than answers and the only objective it has served was to give everyone the impression of police brutality or at the very minimum, a misuse of police authority.