PUB: When there is intense rain, the drains will ‘overflow’
June 4th, 2011 | 
Author: Controversial PAP Environment Minister Dr Vivian Balakrishnan has been hit by a series of ‘misfortunes’ since taking over the ministry two weeks ago from his equally inept colleague Yaacob Ibrahim.
After a maid’s body was dumped in a HDB water-tank which sent shockwaves across the island, a young boy drowned after falling into a drain in Balestier, the first victim of drowning in many years.
As expected, the PAP only bother to react after an accident has happened and PUB quickly put up new drain railings in the area in less than a day which makes one wonder why the work is not done earlier.
Mr Choy Wai Kwong, the assistant director of PUB’s catchment and waterways department proclaimed proudly during a briefing at the site:
“When there is intense rain, the drains will overflow.”
The National Environment Agency said that Wednesday’s thunderstorm had developed quickly and resulted in intense rainfall over a short duration. Rain fell between 1.15pm and 4pm, with the heaviest downpours in the central parts of Singapore.
Dr Vivian Balakrishnan was nowhere to be heard, seen or found in the last few days. It is not known if he is even aware of the unfortunate incident at all.
Posted in Editorial
VB has been to inspect the site the day after the accident. I think there’s something seriously wrong with the drainage as well and would like to see a full-scale enquiry and compensation too but your inaccurate account of events does not help.
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“When there is intense rain, water will overflow”
Sounds almost similar to “If Mas Selamat is not in Singapore,then, he is outside Singapore”
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Miss Vivian is on holiday to celebrate his victory in the last GE2011
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“When there is intense rain, the water will overflow.”
- We Know! Wtf you’re going to do abour it?
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Very sad to hear about the accidents and mishaps. The Ministry and the Dept concerned must work extra hard to win back the hearts of the public. No easy task. God bless.
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Mr Choy
Before you open your mouth, close your eyes and imagine it was YOUR son
Now try to say
“When there is intense rain, the water will overflow.”
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”When there is intense rain, the water will overflow”
Only a fool will not know this..!!!
With this statement made by Mr Choy, you wonder how on earth does he obtained that PUB Assistant Director post in the first place..???
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Search for VB all over the island! We need to hear what this YOG Minister has to say about rain and drain and water tank! Is he hiding under his bed?
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we are not idiot and we dont need an idiot to tell us
even a 3 yrs old know when there are heavy rain, drain will overflow. please give us a better reply not something we already know. you call yourself a assistant director to give this type of respond. we are done for i say.
we want singaporean first singapore not a pap or foreigner first singapore
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this is the new strategy of the government, to tell you it WILL happen as a done deal, so you can FORGET about averting it. they will just minimise damage to their own measure.
same goes for housing. it WILL have shortage, you just have to swallow it. well, that cost Mah Bow Tan all his minister-ship and he’s now an ordinary $15000/month TPL equivalent.
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I wonder if the govt will react the same if a local instead of a tourist died in the accident. Hope tax payer’s money will not be used as compensation and other legal costs for the trials. If sued, the MP for the constituency and the Ministers in charge must foot their own legal bills. Compensation should also come from the persons who failed to carry out their duties, not from our taxes.
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VB was already at the scene of the incident when it happened. He was also at the scene when the boy was found and he ordered an investigation immediately and told PUB to wake up. That is why the railings went up immediately.
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We are very saddened whenever a life is lost whether it is thru natural mishaps, mad man shooting, lightning strikes, traffic accidents and even NATO bombings of innocent civilians.
Singaporeans must learn to take responsibility and not to use Ministers as punching bags or to vent their frustration.
Yes we can build all these railings at public expense but ultimately it is the inidvidual who must learn to look after oneself.
Parents or guardians must also try to help and it is not given that they can give effective help.
So remember courtesy begets courtesy!
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SUCH BUNKER MENTALITY AND WANTS NUCLEAR POWER ENERGY IN SINGAPORE! Would the answer be this in a Fukushima type crisis?
“THERE WILL BE RISKS OF MASS KILLINGS FROM RADIATION LEAK since we use nuclear power”
WE MUST NEVER USE NUCLEAR ENERGY SINCE THE MINDSET IN GOVERNANCE HAS NO SAFETY CULTURE.
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Anybody can take over Vivian’s place as a minister. There is no need to give a reasonable reply to anything gone wrong. All you need is just either give no reply or give rubbish as a reply. Accountability, what accountability?????
Of course flood is caused by rain then what. Why is our drain so lousy? Let’s not blame the drain, surely it is the fault with those looking after them. They are 100% responsible because it is their job to look after the drain to make sure they drain well.
If we continue to allow PAP to govern our country we all will be drowned sooner rather than later. I fear that if there is any deduction in their salary when things gone wrong they will blame us for not paying them well. Rubbish words will come out of them like “Pay peanut gets monkey!!”
Again Vivian will not say sorry, shameful fellow waiting for the PM to apologize on his behalf again. Damn.
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What logic is that? If you taking SIA plane, plane crashes and it is the pilot fault. U mean Compensation should come from the pilot family, not SIA?
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This minister should suffer a pay cut of 50 percent. Likewise the senior civil servants in that department should take a 30 paycut and have no bonus for last year and this year.
If Singapore’s drainage system is unable to cope with intense rain, then that has to be changed. If such intense rain does not justify changing the system to address it, then the minister should explain the rationale.
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“When there is intense rain, the water will overflow.”
SO WHY WASN’T SOMETHING DONE TO PREVENT MISHAPS ???
The is a chinese say : “Pu par ee wan, zi par wan ee”
(Meaning in english : not afraid of the ten thousand hits, but the ten thousand & one hit that matters)
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We demand pro-active, not re-active, Ministers and civil servants as tax-payers are their paymasters. Hard to imagine that they are world-class in the light of their track record. Just because Old Lee says so doesn’t make them so.
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Don’t know what to say but sorry for the parents.
However also wonder how all these foreigners walk ? The pavement appears to be flat & non slippery. There wasn’t any holes , steps nor obstruction of views to trip or make people fall. I grow up in Whampoa since i was toddler & therefore pretty familiar with the surrounding area. As a kid, we ( friends / neighbours / classmates ) use to explore , roam & play freely at all these places. Believe me the road / walk way conditions were much worse. So many years, nothing happens to local & then present ….
Maybe it’s culture but those that been to MRT or shopping mall & popular places will experience how foreigners walk
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Why din SDU say… when there’s a boy and a girl u’ll get babies… <== if this was so "simple" think Singaporeans would not have problems sustaining their "existence" in Singapore
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Proud Arrogant People always preach that high salaries will have good high calibre MPs. They plan ahead to make sure we avoid all the storms. TALK ONLY.
Proud Arrogant People plan ahead but forgot shortage of HDB housing!
Proud Arrogant People plan ahead but forgot that there will be flooding when heavy rain!
Proud Arrogant People plan ahead but forgot our jobs are taken over by FTs.
Proud Arrogant People plan ahead but forgot we can’t afford high medical bills!
Proud Arrogant People plan to listen but forgot about TPL’s case!
Ya, they remember more ERPs, Minister’s pensions, increase CPF min sum…
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“PUB: When there is intense rain, the drains will ‘overflow’”
tsk tsk tsk. when there is drizzle, the water will not ‘overflow’.
when there is intense drain, there will be more water.
when there is intense drain, a lot of people will not be going out.
when there is intense drain, some people may be late or not be going to work or take their leave.
when there is intense drain, it may flood and you may call in once- in-50-years (any big number will do as long as it sounds like a freak incidnet out of control to cover your own ass).
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I can see where this genius is coming from.
When there is no rain, the drains are a waste of space.
Given our climate there are more hot days than rainy days.
Therefore, better to have small drains or no drains at all!!
It is the Singapore way- more efficient!
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why pay top dollar to lousy those talent where such talent can be found in N kore , bangladesh and myanmar easily ?
who say no amount of engaineering can prevent flood ? have you ever heard flood occur in paris or NY ? find out their drainage system !
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This ministry is headed by a playful former minister of sports; it is quite natural to expect a FISHING CONTEST DURING FLOOD!
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“intense rain may cause drain overflow” is obviously correct, like “eating too much makes your stomach very full”; however, the question is how to make the people affected by overflow/indigestion less unhappy in the future; in the mean time, I have recorded various recent floods here
http://singazen.com/complaints/floods
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In future, please tune into radio for `intense rain’ forecast and report, so as to know will the drains overflow or will there be once in 50 years flood.
Should we conduct national wide exercise just to make sure everyone knows what to do during `intense’ or `heavy’ rain?
Oh, btw, need to define `intense’ rain first.
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If drains over flow when there is intense rain, then WTF we need those drains for?
WTF are those ppl in the ministry doing?
Everyday coffee break?
Report in 9am, chit a bit, 10+ go morning coffee break, 12 go lunch, 3+ go tea break, 5+ knockoff and go to ktv?
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Mr Choy, maybe you need to know this:
when you left the bath-tub tap running intensively, the water will also overflow!
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Looking at the ways things are being Managed nowadays …I am not surprise, the “Whole Island Drainage,lonkang ..all have t be barricaded…..toking cok…was quite obvious another “blunder effect cos by the Great Barrage idea !
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Have anyone heard about floods in KL in recent times? KL has made significant improvement in their flooding situations especially the underground tunnel that use as a highway around the city area and double up as drainage tunnel when water overflows. How much does a Minister and civil servant in KL being paid versus their elite Singapore counterparts? Looks like Singaporeans are being short change significantly. LKY likes to lambast the young Singaporeans are not hungry enough and that’s the key reason that he wants more chinese from China and indian from India to come into Singapore to wake up all of us. Looks like our civil servants and Ministers falls into the same category that LKY lambasted.
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住在 Mandalay 一带的黄埔区居民曾经投诉水患浑水遮没阴沟之象，数年来当局掩耳无动于衷。如今悲剧产生了，隔天静悄悄来个亡羊补牢，代价是一条人命，这一现象，怎不叫人心寒？
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Why is our MRT network underground totally not affected by flooding is something that is to think on ? So flooding can actually be controlled at designated points .
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Don’t worry, all floods will eventually subside…No human can stop the dispensations of divinity and we at MOE are just human. VB is an eye doctor by profession and is not Moses…he did not ask to be transferred to MOE, and protested against the transfer according to a family member of his studying at SMU Singapore but PM LHL promised to send him to school to learn flood management and to review his salary upwards and was he sold….
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I remembered long long time ago, when the cable car was HUNG in the air with some visitors (mayb 6 of them), a COL (or BG)then was tasked to incharge of the rescue operation. The incident took place at about 11am and the visitors were rescued at about 12 MIDNITE.
After all the actions, the OFFICER in charge appeared in the TV and explained about their 6 possible approaches and came to the conclusion that only HELICOTER was the safer way, that took them 13 hours. However, if you ask any 5 years old kid, they will almost give you the same answer within 30 seconds…..
The COL (or BG) was no 1 else but LHL…….. and thnx god the cable car did not fall before the action was taken, otherwise I think another COL might have to appear in TV and tell us then SORRY….
With this FLOOD issue, I think they might have more than 100 solutions that they are still looking for the best out of the 100, if EMERGENCY took them 13 hours, then is understandable that they need another 50 years to conclude the BEST way to stop the FLOOD….
(For the time being, just PRAY more to the GOD for no INTENSE raining, this is 1 of the 100 solutions they have….)
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suspect the ministers themselves dont read the straits times because they also dont believe in thier reporting
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to author of the article,
fighting darkness with darkness?
we become the the very monster we seek to destroy?
the end justifies the means?
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Yes, that’s right! I have noticed too that our PUB and NEA are proud of our flooding problem!!!
They like to proclaim that Singapore will flood when it rains! The only problem is how come we don’t shut down NEA and PUB since it is obvious and natural to flood when it rains? Isn’t it useless to keep those high paying civil servants for sleeping in office???
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Singapore is so small, a city, a small red dot.
We have so many highly paid elites in charge.
Yet, there are so many shortcomings and misforunes.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3o7aqkUvTY
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“When there is intense rain, the water will overflow.” – Choy Wai Kwong
I knew that since I was in Primary school. Thanks for reminding.
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Both statements are ridiculous. There are two separate issues here. Firstly, it is a failure of proper drainage management. No area, low lying or otherwise, needs to flood; it floods only due to poor drainage. Do we find properly drained basement car parks flooding in heavy rainfalls?
Secondly, it is a failure of safety protection in and around the drains. Residents have complained about the lack of safety barriers for a long time (see the report http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3o7aqkUvTY ). Why do we always have to wait for someone to pay with his life before some reactive measure is taken?
To be sure, PUB is liable for these failures.
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Intense rain is a 2010 new event meh??
Why wasn’t there floods before that whenever it rained, whether intense or not.
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“Flood in Kuala Lumpur
April 26th, 2009 | by admin |
Kuala Lumpur was badly flooded last 3rd of Mac 2009, mainly at Putra Wolrd Trade Center (PWTC) area. Myself took 3 hrs to reach home, stuck in a very bad traffic jam. Event with the SMART tunnel that should overcome such flood in Kuala Lumpur was not helping at that particular time.”
“Two dead, including German woman in Malaysia floods: reports
Kuala Lumpur (AFP) Nov 4, 2010 – Two people, including a German woman, are dead and more than 41,000 have been displaced in floods in northern Malaysia…”
There are floods all the time in KL. And it is way worst than the ones we get in Singapore.
And yes they did build an underground tunnel, that doubles as a drainage tunnel. But all it has done is to create floods at other areas.
I know this because I do fly to KL for work sometimes, and my colleague there was complaining cos his new car was caught in a flash flood and had to be towed away and totally overhauled.
Not once did he put the blame on the government or anyone else. Because he knows well enough that, “When there is intense rain, the water will overflow.”
http://thestar.com.my/metro/story.asp?file=/2009/3/5/central/3407226&sec=central
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floods_in_Malaysia
http://amdtaufik.com/malaysia/2009/04/flood-in-kuala-lumpur/
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Dr Vivian Balakrishnan was probably busy viewing bungalow for investment whilst this unfortunate accident took place.
These ministers are not even worth paying a single cent !!!!!!!!
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VB – What do you want? Do you want rainwater inside the longkang, carpark or flat? (implying count yourself lucky liao) lolx.
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Vivain!
From “budget over spent thrice” and “you want hawker, foodcourt or restaurant” MYCD to jahgah longkang in Min Of Env.
Like your colleague LSS said “betterer, fasterer, cheaperer”, go back to your previous job as a doctor lah!
Save your face, save taxpayer’s money!
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Very smart now. If u don’t open your mouth
no body can say u stupid.
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“When there is intense rain, the water will overflow” – since this is a common occurrence in S’pore, so should not there be proper planning instead of excuses after excuses. What is the whole bunch of staff in the planning dept doing all these years ?
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He is just like Khaw, maid body found in the water tank until now he MIA with his other PAP Sembawang team and only send in an Indian new MP to wayang drink the water. People are not stupid but will remember these stupid mistakes.
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Pay peanuts get monkeys, pay millions still get monkeys.
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One of the residents in the flooded area where the accident happened has feedback that flooding has taken place since 1980s whenever there is heavy rain as reported in one of the evening papers. So PUB has been sleeping more than 20 years ago? Also, what is the MP in charge doing for all these years? Had the accident happened to a Singaporean instead of a foreigner, would there be any measures taken?
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When there is intense rain, the water will overflow,you are wrong NEA,there is too much ground work in singapore for the past years till now,example new building,mrt line,tunneling,digging,piling and the worst part is the boring the earth below ground will shift and the water had no place to flow underearth.
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can we see the trend and they can’t. flash floods in many places, and all they say is just overflow. even small children also can see that. you pee in the toilet bowl also can overflow. The point is the seemingly popping up of flood areas have not been resolved. If government has to pay damage to property due to flood management, they will have to think harder. The fact is that they get away with it with all kinds of excuse and people suffer. If get paid a lot, that is the pressure you get from the common folks.
Cannot handle rain and water and yet want to talk nuclear power. Fat hope
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Easy analogy and all kind of terminology
pappy are here to corrupt wisdom by saying we want to ensure mother is women ,father is man, but some time very challenging you know ,,because mother can be a girl and father can be boy so my job is trying to make sure mother is mother father is father ,
so pappy still ruling the game
so how do you feel ? so call pappy mentality and Wish coconut head can be crash
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Did I remember someone say `when it rains heavily it will flood’? Not necessarily so in Orchard Road or Bukit Timah Road unless it is biblical flood if someone had done his job properly.
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Vivian Balakrishnan was at the scene of the drowning and has also talked to the bereaved parents. It was reported in the news.
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We are short change.
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Will this be the KPI for Vivie to resolve? If he fails to resolve this by 31 Dec 2011, he’ll not get a single cent of bonus?
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A life has been lost. The statement seems to imply that it is fated which should not be. IF there had been more proactive actions, lives need not be lost. It is hoped that the PUB would be fair to take responsibility for the loss of a precious life. How? It is for the PUB to think about it.
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PAP must be able to control the weather and stop the rain! If SIngaporeans are united, then we can control the rain ourselves. Everybody go and wear black this Sunday if it rains. Stay under the rain, all wear black until the rain stop. This is to show that we are united against the foreign drops of water overflowing our island.
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Dr Vivian should go to Tokyo, study the deep underground tunnel that keeps that city flood free. Dig a deep huge tunnel within a 5 km radius from CK Tang, Orchard Rd. Don’t worry we can afford it if budget over-run. We have the money. It will not cost $350m. We need the deep huge tunnel to let the rain water drain into the tunnel downward fast by gravity to keep the surface drains from being flooded within these 5 km radius.
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and how many months of performance bonus did Mr CHOY
get and what scholar is he?..saf, merit, colombo paln…
the issue is just simply this..why railings now
after the boy had died and 8mths after Min.LUI TY
highlighted problem?
SOP pub says..study site, prepare plans, look for budget
meanwhile lu si lu eh tai zi..you die yr business!
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“There are floods all the time in KL. And it is way worst than the ones we get in Singapore.”
The key is the huge difference in remuneration received by Malaysian ministers and Singapore ministers. When given superman pay, we expect superman results
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answer? answer who? you think they will still be hanging around to answer you?
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VB – Heng Ah. This happened shortly after I was just posted here. Bo Bian not my fault. Want to blame blame my predecessor. Wahahahaha.
Predecessor – Heng Ah. I out liao. Now fingers no longer pointing at me. Wahahahahaha.
Sinkie (shake head)
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BOPIAN LAH! WORK SMART CANNOT WORK HARD, PREFER TO COUNT MY MONEY, HOW MUCH WOULD IT BE 5 YEARS DOWN THE ROAD
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Just imagine if the $300 million overspent on the YOG is used to solve the flood problems – deep tunnel, new drains, bigger and efficient drainage systems, it would have permanently solve this flood problem, Maybe still got money left – no need $300 million. Now VB can try getting another $300 million as budget for anti-flood measures, and we shall see whether the govt will let him have it.
Another one say flash flood occurs once in 50 years. He should take it back.
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God had already passed his Edict:
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“No amount of engineering can prevent flood. Daft singaporean, move on and repent!!”
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”When there is money-making opportunity, PAP ministers will appear”
———- Hope that explains why Vivian B is no-where to be found!
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Superman is not real.
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Its obvious the Marina Barrage is the culprit. Still PAP does not want to admit they made a mistake. Before the barrage was built, we had intense rains too but it has not flooded.
I wonder whose idiotic idea was to build the barrage? Proof once and for all a lawyer/politician makes for a lousy engineer.
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Tell us which part is inaccurate.
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It’s a very unfortunate accident. Sorry that a life was lost just like that.
While we feed sad about it but if the victim is a singaporean, I think the emotional angers will be much greater.
More singaporeans would surely speak up on this issue.
But one life lost is one too many. Hope that minister vivian quickly take actions – not just looking at the site of this accident – but other places as well. There is no schedule for the next flooding. So works must be carried out ASAP.
Maybe singaporeans can help by reporting potential problem spots to the ministry. Singaporeans should not be seemed to only know how to complain and not a part of the solution.
This is one good opportunity for us to positively & tangibly contribute to our society.
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TR, ur articles r sometimes skewed, u noe that? I hope u can make amendments to dis article cos its inaccuracy portrays Dr. Vivian in a negative light. I am NO PAP supporter, but I cannot stand it when any party slanders another of untruth n tries to tarnish the reputation further jz bcos of previous mistakes. As some comments in here hv stated too, that Dr. Vivian has been to the site of drowning for inspection n personally talked to the parents of the dead boy. Pls research b4 writing, do not spoil TR’s reputation becos of a few slanted, untruthful articles.
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I think all these people got this issue totally wrong, heavy rain will flood the area, this is no doubt about it, but in Singapore I am yet to see rain with flood over a person’ head.In this case it is the drain that is not properly manage that is why a life was lost. This is something I expect the minister in charge and PUB to explain. Please do not just explain, they have to also mobile all the staff to go island wide to be sure that the drains are covered so that it will not take another life.
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Always something happens, then action is taken right away. And we thought PAP Govt always think one step ahead, then take action to pre-empt it before it happens. No, we are being fooled.
Vivian is the blur king in budgeting for YOG finance, you think he could budget right for flood alleviation?
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Why do we allow such people Of such position to talk such cock words? like saying i high tide so must go pangjio. Boh liao again… Mindless talk and lack of deliberation in making such statements. Like saying i got a gift and it is free. Or my blood is red and not blue. Stupiad. Is TPL your mentor and coach?
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if you don’t carry umbrella during rainy day you will get wet! wtf
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Folks here,
When i saw the youtube reporting this case, seriously im quite surprised how did that teen walked until he fall and drown down there?
If you look carefully in the youtube, that teen should have walked further away from the lokang, unless you tell me that the green colour bench suddently very shakey and then he happens to hold on to that green bench and fall down there and drown, then the whole scene will make some ssnse.
I mean im not trying to side that sissy vivian, let’s be objective and practical down to earth sometimes. I seriously cannot figure it out with that scene show in youtube, how did that teen drown?
Can someone enlighten me here? Sorry up till now i still dont know how he walk until he can fall to the lokang and drown and died ???? Confused
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when u hungry u should go eat….
when u tired u should go sleep….
when u fall its gonna hurt….
when u are pregnant u will have a baby….
and my favourite
when u vote more opposition you will get less MIW….
gonna prepare my CV, i think im cut out for some high paying job in some stat board somewhere…im real good at stating the obvious too….
the only one i cant figure out is how a dam or so called barrage (like casino is called integrated resort) can prevent flooding…this one is high level bullshit…im not there yet
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To-date, a section of the drain where the Indonesian boy was swept away by flood water is still wide open. Read this news articles and look at the photos. Can’t our highly paid ministers do a simple thing right??? Also, that area is still flooding!!
http://www.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne%2BNews/Singapore/Story/A1Story20110604-282375.html
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The new Education guy has to undo what the old Education guy did.
The new Houing guy has to undo what the old Housing guy did.
The new Transport guy has to undo wht the old Transport guy did.
Are these people deliberately creating jobs for each other so that there is perpectual employment for them?
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This is a clear sign of Ministers salary overflowed.
Now these fat cats are too lazy to work with swollen heads.
Cutting their salaries back to 50 years ago will help in explaining why it happens once in 50 years.
Reducing their salaries as much as possible will definitely clear the choke just as much also.
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The cause of the frequent flash floods all had to do with BACKFLOW aka BACK PRESSURE which reduces the speed of drainage. What causes the backflow? Go figure it out.
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Good luck to those idiots in Bulit Panjang who voted for this idiot! He should be an eye surgeon and not a minister. He’s not cut out to lead us.
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“When there is intense rain, the drains will overflow.”
I hope such reasons are used sparingly in future. They have been using this too often. Which suggests the govt is somewhat behind the curve in planning for drainage.
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We still don’t know what Indonesia will react to this yet.
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I think is time to employ someone is pro enough to “see water”!
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Who is the head of PUB? He should be responsible! We pay so much to PUB every month, so please get this guy to be responsible.
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You have quoted him out of context.
He actually meant to say is “look, I am only the assistant director and I am not paid by the millions. Due to the their incompetence and poor waterway and catchment management… “When there is intense rain, the drains will overflow”. I don’t know what to say… stomping feet like a cute little girl.
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instead of issuing an apology and offer some condolences to the family of the victim, this idiot sprout this? this just show how heartless these people are a the top, they are only after riches and power.
we want a singaporean first singapore not a pap or foreigner first singapore.
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“When there is intense rain, the drains will overflow.”
This is why we need pay our civil servants such high salaries to help anal-ise what happened. Maybe french cooking classes during this June holidays would improve his anal skills.
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When the Drowning Pool overflows, the bodies will hit the floor.
Yes its raining very heavily this Sunday morning. And yes its spoiling my only non-working day of the week.
And yes I am cranky.
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Everyone must realise that lives were lost, families are left broken emotionally and financially.
And yet the minister still gets to keep his office and million dollar salary and bonuses. Do you think he will bother?
Are we paying for our lives to be played around with? Is your life that cheap?
It is very telling when even in peacetime, hardly anything is done to ensure safety. What if there is a national disaster?
Of course, there is a first class seat waiting to airlift them to their hideaway mansion.
They will indeed get to watch the country XXXX, if nothing is done NOW.
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I remember in the 70s and 80s, we used to have floods when it rained heavily. What did the previous PUB do to correct it? Are we saying that the improvement was only due to El Nina? Now the floods is due to El Nino? Or have managed to recruit uncompetitive, low productivity, low efficiency ministers? We aren’t complaining because we are spoilt but we are complaining because Gov is complacent!
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“when there is incompetent people in charge, the people will suffer.”
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If we had only forgo hosting the white elephant YOG event and focus all the money and effort on resolving the floods problem instead. This reveals a government misguided by inflated egos and complete lack of apathy to public welfare.
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“When there is intense rain, the water will overflow.” – Choy Wai Kwong
If he knows such intense wisdom that we don’t and that’s all he has to say, why did he do nothing about before ?
Was there never intense rain before ?
Was Marina Barrage suppose to help in this case ?
What is PUB and the Minister drawing their salary for ?
no solution, no sense of ownership.
Is that statement representing a statement of defence and not accountability ?
Please share more wisdom we don’t know have.
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Can’t even handle “intense rain” but is getting salary higher than countries having to handle tornado and hurricane ?????/
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“When there is intense rain, the water will overflow.”
Mr Choy
If you dont open your mouth no one will know you’re stupid.
You opened your mouth and proved yourself ONE!
Marvellous, I guess it will be pointless to tell you to engage brain before mouth because you’ve proven you’ve got nothing between your ears!
FFS Hv you listen to yourself!
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No amount of money will buy them wisdom or empathy or compassion.
Not even their million dollars salary is going to help them when they are at st peter’s gate!
No engineering will fix his cruel skull, and the other one is speaking from his derriere.
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all these million ministers are trying to let Singaporeans know that there is nothing they can do so blame it on nature while they take your millions and pretend nothing happened!!!!
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First it was “once in 50 years”, then is it clogged drainage, then it’s nature and now it’s ” when it rains heavily the drains will overflow”.
Wah so obvious they trying to hoodwink the Singaporeans to justify their million dollar sparked!
For what they pay themselves without a referendum( all decided byLKY) legalized corruption, of course I expect them to solve the problem even if it’s an act of god!!!!!, if not they are all not worth a cent! They are all criminals robbing the people’s money……
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Wow, million dollar man job so easy, yakult escaped and pass it on to bala
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Is the PUB implying that it is a norm to flood in Singapore? then why need PUB? let it flood can already…no need PUB AT ALL! Why are their answer getting brainless and their action always 1 step late…
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this is not the first drowning case . http://www.singapore-lighthouse.blogspot.com/2011/06/tragic-cases-of-drowning-in-drains.html
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the above link shows a similar drowning case happened in Boon Lay back in 2003. I’m sure the authorities should be aware the areas that are prone to flood and danger. Why didn’t they do anything about it?
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