Yaccob Ibrahim

[makapaaa]

http://www.cabinet.gov.sg/CabinetAppointments/Dr+Yaacob+Ibrahim.htm

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<CENTER>Dr YAACOB Ibrahim
Minister for the Environment and Water Resources and
Minister-in-charge of Muslim Affairs</CENTER>
</TD><TD bgColor=#ffffff vAlign=top width=30> </TD><TD bgColor=#ffffff vAlign=top width=536 colSpan=2>Dr Yaacob Ibrahim was a structural engineer at Bylander Meinhardt Partnership before receiving a scholarship to pursue a PhD at Stanford University (US). He then worked as a post-doctoral fellow at Cornell University (US) before returning to Singapore to join the National University of Singapore. He is currently on leave of absence from the university as an associate professor.

=> Job can be reserved for him even after he became mini$tar. Not a bad deal!

Dr Yaacob has been active in community service since his schooldays and has been involved with the Association of Muslim Professionals, Jamiyah, Majlis Ugama Islam Singapura and the Nature Society. Dr Yaacob also served as a board member of Civil Service College, the National Heritage Board, STV12 Pte Ltd, and Temasek Polytechnic, and as a trustee of NTUC Income, a union-linked cooperative. He has been associated with Yayasan Mendaki since its formation and has been its Chairman since March 2002.

=> Lotsa side incum?

Dr Yaacob has been Member of Parliament for the Jalan Besar Group Representation Constituency (Kolam Ayer) since January 1997. He was also the first Mayor of Central Singapore District from April to November 2001.

Dr Yaacob served as Parliamentary Secretary and Senior Parliamentary Secretary at the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology before being appointed as the Minister of State for Community Development and Sports in November 2001. In March 2002, he was appointed as the Ministry’s Acting Minister and Minister-In-Charge of Muslim Affairs. In May 2003, he was promoted to Minister for Community Development and Sports.

In Aug 2004, Dr Yaacob was appointed Minister for the Environment and Water Resources in Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s Cabinet. Dr Yaacob was re-appointed in the same capacity following the May 2006 elections. He continues to be in charge of Muslim affairs.

=> Chor boh lan for 5 long years? Would the 66% still wanna give him another blank cheque in the next GE?

Dr Yaacob serves in the People’s Action Party’s Central Executive Committee as vice-chairman.

Dr Yaacob was born in Singapore on 3 October 1955. He is married and has two children: a son and a daughter. He enjoys reading, listening to music, and meeting people.

=> Should he not be upgrading himself with knowledge on flood control?

August 2008​

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[makapaaa]

<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR class=msghead><TD class=msgbfr1 width="1%"></TD><TD><TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0><TBODY><TR class=msghead vAlign=top><TD class=msgF width="1%" noWrap align=right>From: </TD><TD class=msgFname width="68%" noWrap>teh_si <NOBR></NOBR> </TD><TD class=msgDate width="30%" noWrap align=right>Nov-20 9:21 pm </TD></TR><TR class=msghead><TD class=msgT height=20 width="1%" noWrap align=right>To: </TD><TD class=msgTname width="68%" noWrap>Guestman551 <NOBR></NOBR></TD><TD class=msgNum noWrap align=right> (17 of 46) </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR><TR><TD class=msgleft rowSpan=4 width="1%"> </TD><TD class=wintiny noWrap align=right>24705.17 in reply to 24705.1 </TD></TR><TR><TD height=8></TD></TR><TR><TD class=msgtxt>he used the same excuse in 2006.. there are already TWO “freak” 1 in 50 years events in less than 3 years.
==
Channel NewsAsia
21 Dec 06
Businesses along East Coast suffering due to rain
By Valarie Tan

SINGAPORE: Dark skies continue to cloud over Singapore, keeping many at home and businesses in pain. A handful braved the rain but it is practically a ghost town at the East Coast hawker centre.

Shopowners say business is down some 70 percent since last Sunday. Abdul Malik, a drinks stall assistant, says: "We lowered the price of drinks by about 20 cents so people will come here to drink." Bicycle rentals also got hit, with only two or three customers a day.

The rain has not stopped the more adventurous from coming out to enjoy the great outdoors. But with their businesses left at the mercy of the weather, most shopowners are cutting their losses quick. Part-timers are sent home two to three hours earlier than usual and shops are closing their doors at least an hour early.

Some gyms across Singapore also saw a 10 percent drop in customers as most people go away for the holidays and some are kept at home due to the recent downpour.

PUB says the recent heavy rain caused excess water from the MacRitchie and Upper Seletar reservoirs to overflow. Reservoirs are designed to hold a certain amount of water, but when there is too much rain, excess water will still spill.

At Upper Seletar Reservoir, excess water was released into the sea by opening the tide gates.

Dr Yaacob Ibrahim, Environment and Water Resources Minister, says: "You can't design for rainfall of this level, it is just too huge. The thing we can accept is that we can only design our canal of a certain size, and at the end of the day, we have to live with some of these occurrences which occur once in 50 years or so. I know it is inconvenient to some Singaporeans, but on the part of PUB and NEA, we'll do our best to alleviate the problem as quickly as possible."

The wet spell is likely to continue and NEA expects more flash floods in low-lying areas with high tides hitting 3.1 metres till Christmas Day.

The roads at the affected areas are back to normal and the spillage at MacRitchie Reservoir has ceased. - CNA/so
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[makapaaa]

<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR><TD class=msgtxt>Singapore's World Records
On this small island lives the 30 best-paid politicians in the world, comments a blogger. MySingaporeNews.
Apr 3, 2009
As the economic crisis worsens and thousands are being retrenched, the huge salaries of Singapore's political leaders have come under the spotlight not only here - but overseas.
With G20 leaders gathering in London to work out solutions to the global crisis, the Times compiled a list of "the 10 best-paid politicians in the world" - naturally with Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong taking the top spot.
The story was picked up by The Australia, which also works out their salaries when ranked against population.
Mr Lee earns S$3.76 million (US$2.47 million) a year, excluding bonuses, allowances, pensions, etc which add on a significant bit.
This is about 54 cents per head of population. In second position was his counterpart from New Zealand at 9 cents. The rest of the world are all down there, below even the lowest-ranking minister in Singapore.
But Singaporean blogger redbean's "My Singapore News" carries a calculation from its reader, Green Peas, expanding on the UK and Australian reports.
It pointed out that the world's 30 best-paid politicians (a definition that will include ministers, elected president, etc) are all from Singapore.
Here's what the blogger says:
The TOP 30 highest paid politicians in the world are all from Singapore:
1. Elected President SR Nathan - S$3.9 million.
2. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong - S$3.8 million.
3. Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew - S$3.5 million.
4. Senior Minister Goh Chok Thong - S$3.5 million.
5. Senior Minister Prof Jayakumar - S$3.2 million.
6. DPM & Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng - S$2.9 million.
7. DPM & Defence Minister Teo Chee Hean - $2.9 million
8. Foreign Affairs Minister George Yeo - S$2.8 million.
9. National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan - S$2.7 million.
10. PMO Miniser Lim Boon Heng - S$2.7 million.
11. Trade and Industry Minister Lim Hng Kiang - S$2.7 million.
12. PMO Minister Lim Swee Say - S$2.6 million.
13. Environment Minister & Muslim Affairs Minister Dr Yaccob Ibrahim - S$2.6 million.

14. Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan - S$2.6 million.
15. Finance Minister S Tharman - S$2.6 million.
16. Education Minister & 2nd Minister for Defence Dr Ng Eng Hen - S$2.6 million.
17. Community Development Youth and Sports Minister - Dr Vivian Balakrishnan - S$2.5 million.
18. Transport Minister & 2nd Minister for Foreign Affairs Raymond Lim Siang Kiat - S$2.5 million.
19. Law Minister & 2nd Minister for Home Affairs K Shanmugam - S$2.4 million.
20. Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong - S$2.2 million.
21. PMO Minister Lim Hwee Hwa - S$2.2 million.
22. Acting ICA Minister - Lui Tuck Yew - S$2.0 million.
23 to 30 = Senior Ministers of State and Ministers of State - each getting between S$1.8 million to S$1.5 million.
Note: 1. The above pay does not include MP allowances, pensions and other sources of income such as Directorship, Chairmnship, Advisory, Consultancy, etc to Gov-linked and gov-related organisations or foreign MNCs such as Citigroup, etc.
2. Though it is based on an estimate, the data cannot be far off the official salary scales.
The above was posted in redbeanforum by Green Peas.
(London Times report: http://timesbusiness.typepad.com/mon...the-world.html)
http://mysingaporenews.blogspot.com/...icians-in.html
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[makapaaa]

Re: 18 Nov 2009 Bukit Timah Rd Flooded!
<HR style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #989898; COLOR: #989898" SIZE=1><!-- / icon and title --><!-- message -->Deluge in Singapore a 'once in 50 years' event

Diversion canal could not cope; drainage work to be sped up, says Yaacob
Amresh Gunasingham & Ang Yiying, Straits Times 21 Nov 09;

THURSDAY'S deluge which submerged parts of Bukit Timah was a 'freak' event that occurs once in 50 years, Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Yaacob Ibrahim said yesterday.

'What happened was very unusual,' he said. 'The intensity was tremendous.'

Shortly after 1pm the skies opened and in the next two hours, almost 110mm of rain fell - almost half the average monthly rainfall for November.

When a diversion canal from the main Bukit Timah canal burst its banks, flood waters rose knee-high, partially submerging ground-floor buildings and cars and causing untold damage.

'We knew the diversion canal was not big enough to take this,' the minister said about the three decade-old canal which stretches more than 3km, from Sixth Avenue to Sungei Ulu Pandan.

It was built in 1972 as part of the Bukit Timah Flood Alleviation Scheme, a major government project aimed at diverting water away from Bukit Timah - a low-lying area with a history of flooding stretching back to the 1930s.

A second diversion canal built in the 1990s near Whitley Road runs into Sungei Kallang and the Marina Reservoir.

The minister said yesterday that plans to widen and deepen drainage networks in the area will be sped up.

PUB, the national water agency, has called for tenders for an engineering consultant to widen the canals in the Bukit Timah area in anticipation of increased stormwater run-off from upcoming developments in the area, a spokesman said.

Construction is expected to start by the third quarter of next year.

Dr Yaacob urged patience as reinforcement work is carried out.

The current north-east monsoon season is usually the wettest time of the year, with almost 48 per cent of the year's rainfall occurring between November and January.

But even thorough planning is not always enough to deal with extreme weather, the minister said.

'It is not possible... to plan for every event. Thursday's weather... occurs once in 50 years. If we design for the largest rainfall or highest tide, then we are going to have huge canals in Singapore.'

The most important thing is to have an adequate drainage system that is continuously upgraded, he said.

Before the canal was built, the area saw about 12 floods a year, with waters rising up to 0.7m. Since then, it remained relatively flood-free until Thursday.

Since the early 70s, more than $2 billion has been spent on building new canals and drains, including the Marina Reservoir, which in the event of a storm can pump 6.3 billion gallons of stormwater out to sea, alleviating flooding in the city area.

It was never used on Thursday as the diversion canal which broke drains into Sungei Ulu Pandan, and the Pandan Reservoir, not the Marina Reservoir, Dr Yaacob noted yesterday.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines as he sent off a group of haj pilgrims at Changi Airport, the minister promised assistance to those affected, saying: 'We will look to do whatever we can to help.'

Mr T.C. Chua, an engineer who was involved in a project to upgrade the Bukit Timah canal in the 1980s, told The Straits Times that development activity in the Upper Bukit Timah area could have contributed to the floods.

'The clearing of shrubs and trees could increase the surface run-off into the canal as there is no build-up to constrict the flow,' he said.

According to the National Environment Agency, moderate to heavy showers with thunder can be expected in the next few days, mainly in the afternoons.

 

[phouse3]

Since the early 70s, more than $2 billion has been spent on building new canals and drains, including the Marina Reservoir, which in the event of a storm can pump 6.3 billion gallons of stormwater out to sea, alleviating flooding in the city area.

It was never used on Thursday as the diversion canal which broke drains into Sungei Ulu Pandan, and the Pandan Reservoir, not the Marina Reservoir, Dr Yaacob noted yesterday.

I have re-read the article thrice and still don't quite understand what it is saying. The ST journalist embedded some facts into the article but in such a way that it is difficult for readers to conclude that it was a human error.

The second canal was not used on the day of the storm! PUB must have mis-calculated the extent of the storm.

I would go on to speculate there might have been a further mis-calculation on a more serious level. PUB thought if the second canal was used, it would have raised the level of Marina Reservoir and hence they have to pump water out to the sea. They wanted to save this extra step thinking that the first canal was adequate (as they have under-estimated the extent of the storm). It is also unpopular to pump water out to the sea as we have spent more than $200 million on Marina Barrage to save precious water.

As an after-thought, as scenarios like this (water level at Marina Reservoir too high) is likely to happen again, PUB called for a tender to widen the first canal to drain water into Pandan Reservoir.

Please don't blame me if I am mistaken and dead wrong. The article is sub-standard.

 

[kingrant]

A PAP defeat in the next GE can also be a one in 50 years event!