Saw PUB's explanation about flash floods and the work that they did over the decades to reduce flood prone areas from 32,000 hectares to 30 hectares. Plus their mention of current 100 odd flood prone and flash flood hotspots.
Surely an entire statutory board created and regulated by parliament cannot be this dishonest. I am not sure if we are dealing with institutional memory loss by choice.
Let get back to our very recent history - 16 Jun 2010 when Orchard Road and the whole of Singapore saw first wide spread flooding after nearly 2 decades. 2 days later on 18th June PUB supposed traced the cause of the flood to a blocked underground culvert in front of Delphi which cause Stamford Canal to overflow and flood Orchard Road. And here is their statement from one of their head honchos on the same day.
"Capacity wasn't a factor at all, as there were similar storms in the past and the canal handled such storms."
2 years prior to the first of Orchard Road floods, Marina Barrage - a dam was completed to create a reservoir plus to handle floods.
So what went wrong? The first Minister who had responsibility for this claimed it was a 100 year event, the second promptly classified it was ponding.
PUB for nearly 40 years was one of the best run Govt entities and in first 30 years was the largest contributor to Consolidated Fund. It also built a cadre of well respected Engineers for the country's power stations, Gas works and the most importantly water and flood control. All gone to the dogs.
Surely an entire statutory board created and regulated by parliament cannot be this dishonest. I am not sure if we are dealing with institutional memory loss by choice.
Let get back to our very recent history - 16 Jun 2010 when Orchard Road and the whole of Singapore saw first wide spread flooding after nearly 2 decades. 2 days later on 18th June PUB supposed traced the cause of the flood to a blocked underground culvert in front of Delphi which cause Stamford Canal to overflow and flood Orchard Road. And here is their statement from one of their head honchos on the same day.
"Capacity wasn't a factor at all, as there were similar storms in the past and the canal handled such storms."
2 years prior to the first of Orchard Road floods, Marina Barrage - a dam was completed to create a reservoir plus to handle floods.
So what went wrong? The first Minister who had responsibility for this claimed it was a 100 year event, the second promptly classified it was ponding.
PUB for nearly 40 years was one of the best run Govt entities and in first 30 years was the largest contributor to Consolidated Fund. It also built a cadre of well respected Engineers for the country's power stations, Gas works and the most importantly water and flood control. All gone to the dogs.
