Flood alleviation projects on track: PUB

By Genevieve Woo, Channel NewsAsia
02 November 2007

SINGAPORE: The PUB has sent out flood advisories to about 600 residents and shop owners located in low lying areas.

But it is confident that flash floods in these areas will be alleviated when the Marina Barrage starts operation by next year.

PUB says the barrage is designed to handle both high tides and heavy rainfall.

It does this by maintaining the water level in the future Marina reservoir through a series of crest gates and huge pumps.

According to PUB, there are now 130 hectares of flood prone areas but this will be reduced to less than 100 hectares when the Marina Barrage and other drainage improvement projects are completed.

In time, low-lying areas such as Boat Quay, Chinatown, Jalan Besar and Geylang, can expect to be relieved of flash floods when it rains.

Other flood alleviation projects are on-going at Cuscaden Road, Olive and Joan Road and Commonwealth Avenue.

PUB says the onset of the rainy season is likely later this month, and is expected to last till late January 2008.

Should you come across floods or wish to check the weather forecast, call PUB-One at 1800-284 6600, or the NEA at 6542 7788.

Alternatively, you can get weather information on NEA's website at www.nea.gov.sg.

- CNA/yb

Flooding in some parts of Singapore due to heavy rain

By Asha Popatlal, Channel NewsAsia
28 August 2007

SINGAPORE: There was flooding in some parts of the island on Tuesday due to heavy rain, leading to traffic chaos.

The rain started early as Singaporeans were about to go to work or school, and it did not let up for much of the morning.

The rainfall recorded over a period of seven hours, from 7am to 2pm, hit 143mm – about 80 percent of what Singapore gets in a whole month.

According to records, the average total monthly rainfall for August is 175 mm.

The area near Commonwealth MRT station saw traffic slow down as some vehicles got caught in the flood waters.

Low-lying areas were the worst hit and water levels came up to the knees.

An SBS bus crashed into a taxi stand when its driver tried to drop off his passengers at the shelter off the main route amidst the heavy downpour.

An elderly woman was slightly injured when glass from the windshield fell on her and was later taken to the hospital.

Heavy rain also caused flash floods in central parts of Singapore.

Taxi-driver Ng Kim Wah said: "When I came here, the water-level was quite high but I could see the yellow markings. So I thought I could drive through. As I drove through, I didn't realise that my number plate dropped out. I think it was probably loose and the force of the water (caused it to drop)."

A few weeks ago, more than 80 percent of the island experienced less than average rainfall, but Singapore is starting to experience wet weather with the southwest monsoon prevailing in the region.

The weatherman expects showers in the mornings and rain with thunder in the afternoons.

Police received some ten calls on heavy flooding at Upper Bukit Timah Road, Cuscaden Road, Eng Neo Road, along the Pan Island Expressway (PIE), and the Commonwealth area.

After The Floods, Illness Looms

Aug 11 2007 (TODAY)

DHAKA - Health workers in Bangladesh battled diarrhoea and cholera on
Friday as international aid began to flow into South Asia to help millions
lacking water and food after the worst monsoon floods in decades.

The death toll was well above 2,000 on Friday with at least 16 more
deaths reported in Bangla-desh and 19 in India's Bihar state overnight.

Rains have halted from southern Nepal to Bangladesh in the east. The focus
now is on combating a host of water-borne diseases, health officials said.

At Bangladesh's biggest diarrhoea hospital in the capital Dhaka, doctors
like Mr Alejandro Cravioto were working around the clock amid hundreds of
extra beds under tents to help flood victims.

"It's like a war-zone situation," he said.

Several countries and international agencies have pledged assistance and
money to help victims in South Asia, including the European Union which
has put up an initial four million euros ($8.3 million).

Meanwhile, a senior United Nations official said that serious flooding
affects 500 million people every year.

He said that it has become a major problem not just in Asian countries
with annual monsoons and typhoons, but in countries like Sudan, Colombia,
Ethiopia and Afghanistan. According to the UN, 83 per cent of disaster
victims last year lived in Asia.

Assistant Secretary-General Margareta Wahlstrom, the UN deputy emergency
relief coordinator, added that floods and weather-related disasters
accounted for 59 per cent of all reported disasters last year.

Between 2004 and 2006, there was an increase from 200 to 400 emergencies,
with the number of floods increasing from 60 to over 100, she said. This
year, there have been about 70 floods up to August, she said.

The UN cited as examples the July heat wave in Europe, the cyclone in Oman
in June, and floods this summer in Sudan, Ethiopia, Myanmar, South Asia,
Afghanistan and Colombia. - Agencies

Floods: India, Nepal Trade Blame

Aug 7 2007 (TODAY)

Neighbours say each others' dams are responsible

KATHMANDU - India and Nepal blamed each other yesterday for some of the
worst flooding in South Asia in decades, which has affected 25 million
people and left rescuers scrambling to help victims.

Officials in Bihar, the Indian state worst affected by the inundation,
said neighbouring Nepal had failed to build dams to control water surging
down from the Himalayas.

But Nepal hit back immediately, claiming that Indian dams were to blame
for the flooding in Nepal.

"We can't do anything about the amount of water coming from Nepal," said
Ms Purna Kumari Subedi, Member of Parliament for Nepal's Banke district,
which borders Bihar.

"The same thing happened last year. Because of the dam constructed at
Laxmanpur on the Indian side, a lot more land on the Nepali side was
extremely flooded, affecting thousands of people," said Ms Subedi.

Nepal's foreign ministry said India could have helped to alleviate the
flooding upstream in the Himalayan kingdom. "Some of the Terai plains
areas bordering India were flooded because dams on the Indian side were
kept closed," said Mr Arjun Bahadur Thapa, Nepal's foreign ministry
spokesman.

In Nepal, at least 91 people have died in landslides and floods since the
beginning of June, officials said. Some 270,000 people have also been
affected, mostly in the southern plains bordering Bihar.

Over in Bihar, the flooding has affected 11.5 million people, while more
than 90 people have died in the last two weeks. The state's disaster
management chief, Mr Manoj Srivastava, said more than 6,000 villages were
submerged, but added that the waters appeared to be receding.

Meanwhile, Bihar authorities have sought federal government intervention
to tackle the issue with Nepal, claiming excessive water flow had engulfed
hundreds of villages in the Indian state that in the past had been
unaffected by flooding.

"We have written to the Prime Minister to take up the issue with the
Nepalese authorities," said Bihar's chief minister, Mr Nitish Kumar.

"Floods are an annual feature because all rivers originating in the upper
regions of the Himalayan kingdom send massive amounts of water, especially
into northern regions of the state," Mr Kumar told reporters. - AFP

Build dykes to protect against rising sea levels: experts

By Hasnita A Majid
Channel NewsAsia
09 May 2007

SINGAPORE: Experts say Singapore can build a system to protect itself from rising sea levels due to global warming - they recommend dykes, or a sea defence system.

As an island Singapore can be affected by rising sea levels as a result of melting ice caps because of global warming.

So the country is looking into the possibility of building dykes to tackle this problem, as disclosed by Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew at a recent dialogue.

Singapore is tapping the experience of the Dutch, who have been using dykes for many years.

Dykes are used to protect cities in the Netherlands, half of which were built below sea level.

Dykes have also been used in countries such as the US and Japan.

But there are different conditions for different countries.

"It depends, a little bit on the elevation of the land in Singapore. I think it makes sense to do a good study on this, to verify where land is prone to future inundation. Of course in Singapore you have a little handicap of finding fill materials.

"Locally, conditions can be also difficult to integrate into the coastal developments, so you have little space and of course, locally the water depth is quite significant. So you have to take that into account," says Tjitte A Nauta, Project Manager, Marine & Coastal Management, Delft Hydraulics.

"Altogether, I think it makes sense to study… the impact of inundation on the area and then come up with a plan on how to protect it… and then you go into these designs, whether you consider dykes or consider sea walls or whatever…

"Basically you can do it anywhere where land can be inundated. And that depends on where you are worldwide, and in some cases it's basically affected by tides.

"And some areas are affected by tides that come in, but it is to protect the land behind it.

"Then you make a decision once you know what the local conditions are and when you should go for the dyke; when you should go for the sea wall; and when you should go for breakwaters to take care of the water exposure … or you go for a combinations of all these," continues Nauta.

There are also varying safety standards. In the Netherlands for example, it has a very strict standard which allows a potential of only one accident per 10,000 years, while in other countries like the US, it is more lax, allowing the potential of one accident in a 100 years.

Delft Hydraulics says that in the Netherlands, dykes are also used to create land from marshland and other water bodies, by constructing the structures to block off the areas and pumping them dry - hence creating what is called a polder.

This model, it is believed, can also be applied to Singapore to create more land.

Nauta explains how it works, "The polder system is basically an alternative to traditional land reclamation. With land reclamation I mean filling up the area until it’s above the running water level. But a polder works in a slightly different way.

"Basically, it starts by building a dyke in the water system and then pumping it dry - the land within the dyke is pumped dry so that a land is created on the existing bed of the sea or the lake or whatever.

"In your case it would be the sea environment so the polder [has] to be built in a different way than the polders that have been built in the Netherlands… but in the Netherlands we have created a substantial increase of our land… by just building large polder schemes…

"…and they are in a sense a cheaper alternative to land reclamation because you don't need all the fill materials."

But having to pump the water out also means more energy required, which may result in higher costs.

Still, the long term gain would be significant because dykes not only serve as a water defence system but can double up as an area to maintain biodiversity.

And this is exactly the objective of the Singapore Delft Water Alliance which is based at the National University of Singapore, NUS.

"We are involved in a number of research programmes - building with nature, understanding how we can enhance traditional engineering…

"…by enhancing the performance of a system, by increasing biodiversity in order to arrive at a better system, to develop better protection.

"The modern eco-hydraulics is that we can enhance the performance of sea defence and enhance the biodiversity at the same time.

"In the Netherlands for example, there's a programme called "Rich Dykes". So they are not simple structures made of concrete but structures that involve working with nature," says Associate professor Vladan Babovic, Director, Singapore Delft Water Alliance.

The NUS is also drawing up plans for a system that performs multiple functions.

It is setting up Aquatic Science Centres in canals and coastal areas to study the viability of an ecosystem where the water can be kept clean at the same time. - CNA/yy

Heavy rain may cause flash floods in low-lying areas of Singapore: PUB

22 March 2007 (CNA)

SINGAPORE : The PUB has warned that flash floods may occur in low-lying areas in Singapore due to heavy rain.

According to the Met Service, moderate to heavy showers with thunder over northern and eastern areas of Singapore can be expected between 4pm and 5.30pm. - CNA/ch

Villas Of The Rich Blamed For Floods

Feb 17 2007 (TODAY)

Officials urged to build better drainage systems following floods in
Indonesia

JAKARTA - Indonesian leaders must bear responsibility for floods which
inundated the capital and other recent disasters to hit the country, said
the country's Vice-President Jusuf Kalla.

Jakarta is still struggling to clear up the mess from floods earlier this
month, which killed 85 people and forced half a million others to flee
their homes.

While climate change was partly to blame, Mr Kalla said Jakarta's Governor
Sutiyoso and other officials should take responsibility for the
devastation because of over-building, which had not been accompanied by
better drainage systems. "The richer people are, the more villas they
build. So the mountains are full of villas. The green areas, including the
rivers, are getting smaller and it is not balanced with a proper drainage
system," he said.

"Sutiyoso must also be responsible for what has happened, be that good or
bad," he added. "But on the other hand, the national government must also
be held responsible."

Mr Sutiyoso has said that the disaster was a "cyclical natural phenomenon"
and that neighbouring regions also had to be involved in flood prevention
efforts.

But critics have accused his administration of dragging its feet in taking
steps to protect the capital, such as the delayed building of another
flood canal.

A recent construction boom has seen shopping malls, tower blocks and
villas built over traditional drainage areas in Jakarta, which is partly
below sea level. Satellite photographs chart the shrinking areas of
vegetation and ever-expanding urban sprawl in Jakarta over the past 30
years. Mr Kalla said a joint effort by the city and authorities in
adjoining areas would reduce the impact of the annual floods.

Construction projects have reduced the ability of the ground to absorb
water and will now have to include flood prevention measures. "Now I have
made it obligatory to plant trees, build water drainage tanks and water
ponds," he said.

In Jakarta, Mr Kalla said canals built by former Dutch colonists in the
1920s would be repaired and new ones built to improve drainage. An early
warning system is already in place, but Mr Kalla said many residents were
so used to the annual floods that they only took it seriously when the
waters reached their doorsteps. - AFP

High tides, heavy rain expected over Lunar New Year holidays

By Valarie Tan, Channel NewsAsia
16 February 2007 2306 hrs

SINGAPORE : High tides of at least 3.1 metres are expected during the Lunar New Year weekend.

The Meteorological Services Division said heavy rains are also expected from February 18 to 21.

And flash floods may occur in low-lying areas, especially if the high tides coincide with heavy rain.

PUB has also advised shop-owners and residents in these areas to take precautions to protect their belongings against possible floods.

The low-lying areas include Chinatown, Tanjong Katong, Geylang, Lorong Buangkok and the roads between Weld Road and Kitchener Road. - CNA/ms

Johor floods: Tekong works not to blame

Straits Times 14 Feb 07
Letter from Errol Goodenough

MALAYSIANS who believe the floods in Kota Tinggi are a result of reclamation works on Pulau Tekong need to revisit their local geography.

Kota Tinggi town lies way up the Johor River, some 45km from Pulau Tekong. The very name (High Fort) suggests it is on elevated ground.

All the way downriver are numerous villages. None was inundated, although all are on lower terrain on the river bank.

Kampong Belungkor and the province of Pengarang, which lies directly opposite Pulau Tekong, were not affected either.

Surely these settlements would have been the first to flood if reclamation were to blame, especially as they lie at the mouth of the Johor River where water flow is significantly slower.

Between the sand and a flooded place

By Derrick A Paulo, TODAY
13 February 2007 1039 hrs

After weeks of seeing the Republic caught in the crosshairs of diplomatic snipes by its neighbours, it was time yesterday for some Singapore MPs to let off a little steam of their own.

Indonesia's sand ban, Thailand's tapping allegations and Malaysia's attempt to link its flooding to Singapore were all raised in Parliament.

As MPs sought answers from the Cabinet, they aired their thoughts on the issues.

"Is it true the Indonesians are very concerned over the significant impact to the environment arising from our purchase of sand from them? If so, can we not impress upon Indonesia to be equally concerned about the haze problem?" asked Mr Sin Boon Ann of Tampines GRC.

"What's (the Foreign Minister's) view on the politics of envy in this instance? Does he see the ban on sand arising from a situation of 'I see you little red dot — tak puas (not satisfied), rather than from border and environmental concerns?" enquired West Coast GRC's Madam Ho Geok Choo.

"In view of the recent suspension of the civil service exchange programme by the Thai government ... shouldn't the Foreign Ministry cancel all such programmes and channel the money to better use, such as expediting the lift upgrading programme in Nee Soon South?" said Ms Lee Bee Wah of Ang Mo Kio GRC.

The latter request, in particular, prompted Foreign Minister George Yeo to caution all involved against aggravating matters by "reacting in an emotional way".

"It's certainly not in our interests," said Mr Yeo, who was reluctant to comment on the domestic politics of Singapore's neighbours.

Nonetheless, as MPs probed about Singapore's bilateral relations in the region, Mr Yeo and National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan parsed the issues in detail.

On the sand ban, Mr Mah said that Indonesia's environmental claims were unjustified. "We were aware that various quarters in Indonesia had been calling on their government to ban land sand exports because of claims of environmental damage and the potential impact on Indonesia's boundaries. These claims are not justified," he said.

Indonesian sand suppliers already plough some proceeds from the sale of sand into environmental reconstruction. "That is built into the price of sand," Mr Mah noted.

Neither is it clear how the mining of land sand — which is used only for construction — or sea sand can affect maritime boundaries, said Mr Yeo.

Indonesia banned the export of sea sand in 2003.

Regardless, the reclamation works cannot affect the demarcated boundaries and current agreements between Singapore and its neighbours, he said. Areas not yet demarcated will have to be done so through negotiations.

Referring to Indonesian media reports linking the ban to border talks and extradition treaty negotiations between both countries, he said: "Such a linkage, if true, would be unfortunate and counterproductive. Our border limitation talks are complicated enough. An additional linkage would only make talks more difficult."

On floods in Malaysia, he said this had been "extensively studied", and the effects on Malaysia from Singapore's reclamation works were "not an issue".

Turning to ties with Thailand, he said that while the Thai government had lobbied to cancel former Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra's dinner with Deputy Prime Minister S Jayakumar, the Republic emphasised there would be no publicity.

"It was the Thai side which made public the DPM's meeting with Mr Thaksin, despite our assurance it would be kept private and discreet," said Mr Yeo.

On the eavesdropping allegations, he said there are telecommunications companies under foreign ownership in many countries. For example, a Norwegian company owns a Thai telco.

The Thai authorities and Thai nationals at the Temasek-owned telcos would not allow domestic calls to be routed through Singapore, he said, adding that "it would also have been absurd for Temasek to sully its reputation by doing something like this".

Summing up, Mr Yeo said, "Relations between countries, even close neighbours and partners, sometimes have their ups and downs ... (and) we have to take the current unpleasantness in our stride." - TODAY/fa