Bukit Timah flooding: a real freak event or an oversight?
November 24th, 2009 | 
Author: OPINION
The flooding at Bukit Timah last Thursday had affected many Singaporeans and damaged properties and cars in the vicinity.
Should Bukit Timah residents accept the simplistic explanation from the government that the event was utterly unavoidable or should they take them to task for what is possibly an oversight on their part?
Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Yaacob Ibrahim described the flooding of parts of Bukit Timah on Thursday as a “freak” event that occurs once in 50 years.
“What happened was very unusual. The intensity was tremendous. We knew the diversion canal was not big enough to take this,” he added. (CNA, 20 Nov 2009)
One such flooding in 50 years may be considered a “freak” event, but can two “freak” events occur in less than two years one after another?
Back in December 2006 when heavy rain caused excess water from the MacRitchie and Upper Seletar reservoirs to overflow and flood the surrounding areas, My Yaacob had said exactly the same thing in an interview with Channel News Asia:
“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.”
With due respect to Mr Yaacob, the heaviest downpours in Singapore are nothing compared to those in our neighboring countries.
Singapore is a small island of only 700 sqkm2. How many canals does PUB need to build or expand to plan for such “freak” storms?
Mr Yaacob obviously had not learn his lesson during the flooding in 2006. The Bukit Timah area is well-known to be prone to floods which begs the question why the canals were not expanded earlier.
Even without an outright flooding of such catastrophic proportions, there were occasions when heavy rains caused massive traffic jams along Bukit Timah road.
PUB only bothered to speed up the expansion of the canals in the aftermath of Thursday’s flooding. Why haven’t they done so earlier?
Mr Yaacob appealed for patience from the public to enlarge the drains:
“I hope the public will have more patience with us because it will take us some time to enlarge those drains. But having said that, it is not possible for us to plan for every event,” he said.
His words are scant comfort to those whose properties and cars were damaged by the flood waters.
Mr Yaacob had five years to do so when he assumed the portfolio of the
Minister of Environment and Water Resources in 2004. Why wasn’t the construction work event started during his tenure which is now leading to another one year delay before it will finally commence?
Contrary to Mr Yaacob’s claims, the Bukit Timah flooding is entirely preventable had he taken the initiaive to start enlarging the canals when the 2006 flooding had seriously exposed the inadequacies of Singapore’s current drainage system instead of waiting for the “freak” event to happen.
The government can afford to spend $10 million to set up a Community Integration Fund to make the new citizens feel welcomed in Singapore and another $100 million to host APEC, surely it should have invested sufficient resources to ensure that Singapore’s public works are up to mark?
It doesn’t need an engineer to figure out that after nearly 30 years, the canals in Bukit Timah are in urgent need of a complete overhaul.
Furthermore with today’s technologies, the National Environment Agency (NEA) should have no difficulties in forecasting the heavy downpour accurately on Thursday and take active, pre-emptive measures to prevent the flood from occurring.
It is a joke that NEA’s website has failed to even depict the weather conditions accurately at the time of the storm.
A netizen posted on STOMP a snapshot of the NEA’s online weather map which did not reflect the heavy rain during the time when there was flooding at Dunearn Road.
She said:
“This (the above) was shown on the NEA website at 3.32pm. It showed that only a minor part of northern Singapore was raining. However, a check outside my office window showed heavy rain and flooding along Dunearn Road.”
It is laughable that a small place like Singapore is allowed to be overwhelmed by flood water from a “heavy” downpour which is no more than a tear drop compared to those in Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand.
When you are paid more than 2 million dollars a year, the public has every right to expect top-notched first class public service without any hitches.
Singaporeans will find it hard to accept Mr Yaacob’s defense that he is caught out unaware again by a second “freak” event in less than two years.
There is no way his ministry can exonerate itself from blame. This is an obvious oversight on its part.
Construction work on the Bukit Timah canals should have started immediately after the 2006 flood in the Thomson area close to Bukit Timah.
More than 2 years had passed and nothing was done. Is Mr Yaacob waiting for another “freak” event to knock him out of his complacency?
If it is really impossible to expand the drains to “design” for rainfall of this level, then why is PUB embarking on the construction work now to do so?
Taiwanese President Ma Ying-Jeou who was paid much less than Mr Yaacob had to issue a public apology not once, but several times to the victims of the recent Typhoon Morakot which hit the southern counties of Taiwan for his government’s slow response to the disaster. A few senior-ranking officials in his administration were forced to resign, including his premier.
The least Mr Yaacob can do now is to accept responsibility and apologize to those Bukit Timah residents affected by the storm instead of pushing the blame to entirely Mother Nature.
It is understandable and forgivable if we are a living in a place as large as New Orleans which was hit by Hurricane Katrina, but not in puny Singapore.
Mr Yaacob should remember that he is paid to do his job and not to talk cock sing song to save his ass.
Perhaps the biggest “freak” event is not the flooding itself, but how a multi-millionaire minister is allowed to get away with such a juvenile error without having to pay a political price for it.
Singaporeans seriously need to start demanding for some form of accountability from their leaders instead of letting them off the hook again and again.
We did not ask to pay them such a high salary in the first place and so the onus is on us to ensure that we are getting some “value” for money.
“Freak” events should never be allowed to happen under the watch of a highest-paid government in the world.
Posted in Opinion
Freak event? This statement can be consider as the “Mother of All Excuses”. It would not be long before this country is going to be run by a bunch of millionaire Clowns.
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It appears Yaacob has been living in his own world, not knowing what has been happening around the globe in the last 2-3 years.
Catastrophic/Devastating Floods have been happening all around us and he says ours is a ‘Freak’ event.
He is either blind/deaf/dumb or all of these.
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Oi, Sg … Who vote him in. And, who say if he is pay millions means he has to solve every problems. If you gives me the mandate. Then, it’s up to me to say what I want. So, stop complaining, if not Vote them out or stand in for election for opposition, if you win you can solve it yourself.
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its not a freak event. Many things could have been be done to minimise damage and deal with a 1 in 50 years flood.
Just by having a water diversion canal shouldn’t just be the answer. There are other alternatives such as increasing the amount of water absorbent materials in the landscape.
Bukit Timah is a flood prone area, everyone knows this(thanks to our history textbooks). Who does Yaacob want to bluff by saying that this is a freak event.
It is just an incredible lack of foresight to not see this coming.
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Wasn’t Marina Barrage build to control flood tracing the Canal would reveal that water in Bukit Timah area are drawn into Kallang Basin which is now controlled by Dam at Marina Barrage which makes water level in the controlled zones independent to tidal condition. The question would be the effectiveness of the dam which in this case did not serve its purpose or it may be the cause as the pumps were not able to pump out water at a fast enough rate? It seem that PUB is trying not to rise the responsiblities on the Dam in this flood. If it was reall human error in controlling the Dam’s function, that case it was not a freak event, PUB will have to compensate for all the damages. Hope the insurance companies would establish facts if the dam at Marina Barrage had under performed or human error in controlling water level in the catchment area had caused the flood as we can see from photos that the canal had break its bank.
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The completion on the marina barrage doesn’t seen to be of any help to this BT recent flood.
Although it was stated that Chinatown, Boat Quay, Jalan Besar and even Geylang could have benefitted and prevented from excessive floodwater, BT flooded area which was much further away appx. 6km – 7Km from marina barrage did not have the same effect.
In reality, the marina barrage did very little or nothing to deviate the sudden downpour in BT.
So, the problem. knowingly is due mainly to the narrow canal which was not widened at all to cater for any eventuality.
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i live in jalan besar GRC and i voted for opposition in the previous 2 elections. i feel sad that yacoob is so irresponsible, he should take a leaf out of khaw’s book who has just apologized for his mistake in the KKH saga.
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The Bukit Timah Canal is connected to both the Kallang and Pandan Rivers. The high water level is due to high tides coming in from the Pandan River that can be predicted with high accuracy. However, the pumps in the Marina Barrage should have been activated so as to drain the Kallang River. In this way. the Bukit Timah Canal can be drained off faster. Obviously this was not done as the PUB Timah. Why a high water alarm system was not installed to warn of the need to discharge excess water earlier is something our top talent scholars should answer for.
I wonder what government apologists like janetnt have to say about this now, now that the PUB has planned to enlarge the canal, proving that a situation like this could and should, but was not prevented through proactive measures.
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I’m sorry, that should read “The PUB was unaware of the situation in Bukit Timah.”
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this reminds of something i read recently. after 9/11, a lot of people asked why nothing was done in the first place to make planes even more difficult to be hijacked (e.g. bulletproof doors to the cockpit, etcetc). indeed, measures were taken to ensure that something similar to 9/11 never happens again. but that’s looking from hindsight.
if indeed someone had, before 9/11, suggested all those measures, he may have prevented 9/11 from happening, but he would not have gotten any praise. rather, he would have been ridiculed and chastised for wasting money.
similarly, if the government had indeed spent much more in widening and deepening the canals, putting in all these measures before the recent flooding, i’m not so sure anyone would have cheered for the foresight of the government. because in taking more drastic efforts to prevent such a flood from happening, the flood would not have happened and therefore it might seem that all those things were done for nothing. instead, i am very sure that people would ridicule the government for being kiasee and wasting public money.
how to be not kiasee (and seem to ‘waste’ money) and still prevent for EVERY single eventuality, no matter how remote? how to prioritise the use of resources for things which are more likely to happen? how to maximise resources to prepare for the rare events which might really have a HUGE impact on the future of our nation? and how to do all of those things while not drawing ANY criticisms from the people?
i don’t think ANY government can live up to those expectations.
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Erm, I think the author of this article all need to read up more about weather prediction and rainfall issues in a tropical climate, storm frequency, and disaster prediction. The amount of wrong assumptions made here doesn’t make you look good you know?
Esp this line:
“It is understandable and forgivable if we are a living in a place as large as New Orleans which was hit by Hurricane Katrina, but not in puny Singapore.” I think you all seriously need more research about New Orlean’s situation before you compare it with SG.
As for freak events, there are also 1 in 100 years events, 1 in 10000 years events, 1 in 100 000 years events, 1 in 1 000 000 000 years freak events. Definitely none of the things in Singapore has the capacity to deal with such super huge mega freak events that happens. Should we spend money to deal with it too? Does the cost justify?
PS: Do read up about those 1 in 50 years estimate, 1 in 1000 years estimate and what it exactly means.
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RC, 5 years ago I was working on a condominium project (The Shelford) in the Bukit Timah area. Every time it rained heavily, the area would flood. In other words, what happened a couple of days ago is not a freak occurence. It’s happened several times before, proving that the area is flood-prone. If this doesn’t prove a lack of initiative and proactivity on the part of the PUB, I don’t know what does.
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yes, i agree that that area floods a lot. in fact, when i was studying there more than 10 years ago, that place used to flood a lot too. but things have since improved. the same volume of rain which would cause flooding when i first started studying in that area would not cause the same amount of rise in water levels when i graduated 6 years after.
so to say that absolutely nothing has been done is quite unfair. of course, one could say that not enough has been done la. but… how much is enough? then if do too much, then it becomes kiasee and waste money. so how to find that balance leh?
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Mr. Yaacob, you better get started b4 another one comes on the way. You might even lose your pants.
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you see it’s so very easy!
when there is bad economy,USA not doing well.
when there is good economy,it;s our hard work and “talents”.
so.now it’s the same line of reasoning,blame the godsend weather…i better turn into GOLD 90.5 FM and avoid travelling along BUKIT TIMAH from now on when it’s “drizzling”!
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To say the big canal at BT was choked, not likely as the water would have clear very fast once rain stopped if Kallang basin was able to take the loading but that was not the case, the flood water stay long enough to create all the damages. The water level at Kallang basin that time must be very high that water from BT was not able to channel into it at the correct flow rate as the main channel was choked instead. There are two routes in BT that water are directed to Kallang Basin, The part nearer to Adam road lead into Rochor Canal and the part that was worst hit in last week flood is routed to the canal along Jalan Toa Payoh.
BTW the flood caused at Thomson RD years back was not really due to rain, it was caused by PUB releasing water from the dam at Macritchie Reservoir, the water level can remain high for hours and the bloody dam can be seem releasing water even when the florist owners were struggling to safe their day. PUB could have informed the florist and shops along the small drain before they open the Dam to release water from it. The water from it is also directed to the same canal along Jalan Toa Payoh. It is obvious that PUB has not done enough to control these floods.
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I wonder if anybody has checked up on the geography of the land around Bukit Timah? There have been many downpours in recent days – why did this particular downpour cause such a massive flood?
There are several construction projects taking place in and around Bukit Timah. The MRT is being constructed, and at the Sungei Ulu Pandan, Newater works are being carried out. Is it possible that for some reason, some temporary blockage of the drainage system was put in place to facilitate these projects, so that when the rains came, the water could not be drained into Sungei Ulu Pandan as it should? Could it be that a worker forgot to open a sluice gate somewhere in the system until floods occurred? This would definitely be negligence.
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cy:i feel sad that yacoob is so irresponsible. Yacoob is not irresponsible,he is a politican,so, he is doing his jobs by talking and getting his pay($m). The people themselves are irresponsible on voting them.
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It is a common fact that many MPs had committed many grave mistakes in their careers with the government. I am not fully satisfied with their mere sorry(s). i think we need a new team to steer the country back on the right path where the citizens can become happy and contended once again.
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This is a case of discrimination against the (supposed) rich. I live in BT area – a supposed rich man area. Every election, there is walkover. Now suddenly there is talk of expanding the canals. Maybe some minister’s car got wet.
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This BT area was a catchment area, where, when it rained, lots of water is collected.In the early 60s & 70s flooding was the order of the day whenever it rained all along Bukit Timah Road.
However, PUB did do some alleviation works to lessen the floods.But the works done by PUB has since been outdated by the changing landscape as a result of the many condominiums spouting up in and around the areas.PUB has not followed up with the alleviation works in parallel with the changing landscape, as a result, we have this so called ‘freak’ flooding!
This is akin to the large influx of the FTs & FWs flooding Singapore at the present moment.Our infrastructures are not enough to cater for the sudden surge of the FTs & FWs.Jobs and
accomodations are not enough to fit them in.
It’s a vicious cicle, the ministers are all caught with their pants down! That’s why we hear alot of these idiotic excuses
nowadays!!!
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While other countries can have Mediocre performance,
it would be Rude of us to Expect Mediocre performance from our talents. We should only expect the highest standard.
Anything less is unacceptable.
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Dear minister,
Can you be cheaper, better, faster?
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Ministry of Environment and Water Resources:
1. Minister says ‘freak’ flood
2. Perm Sec learning how to cook in France – 6 Dec 08
3. What’s next? Is anybody doing work there?
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We paid these ministers millions.
That’s obscene.
However, these clowns don’t even produce anything.
Their pay is beyond obscene.
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“Their pay is beyond obscene”
not only obscene, but very sinful.
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先天下之“富”而“富”
後天下之“苦”而“苦”
……新一代统治者
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If it is flooding in Potong Pasir and Hougang and people cannot get to, or back home from, their MRT stations, do you think they suffer “hypertension” of rescue efforts to relieve the situation?
Too many precious ghosts staying in the “wrong” Bukit wake up the living fearful and too many rebels staying in Potong Pasir and Hougang would probably cause their acute mental blockages.
low class citizens count for nothing.
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