Some minor flooding at Orchard Road this year, again, after a bout of heavy rain. Obviously not on the scale of last year’s floods in Pakistan or this year’s in the Philippines – no one has lost their homes though one teenager did drown after falling into an open drain. BUT the floods are in a high-profile area where, prior to last June, it had not flooded for 25 years; now it has flooded twice. Why?
1. Yawningbread’s take on the flooding.
2. Commentary by my colleague Tan Dawn Wei.
3. Two posts by the Environment and Water Resources Minister (Vivan Balakrishnan) himself.
Here
and here
—
Any question that we can put to government agencies is related to one of these five themes:
The onus is on government agencies to show
– whether and how the average amount and intensity of rainfall have changed (rainfall questions to the NEA)
– that the current or planned drainage capacity is in fact adequate or will be (where were the largest floods in each of the last few years, what are the planning parameters the PUB uses and how do these relate to rainfall predictions AND urbanisation predictions?)
– that Marina Barrage did not contribute to the floods (in which areas were there floods before and after Marina Barrage was built?)
– and that increasing urbanisation, buildings and road density did not contribute to the floods (what are the most-intense rainfall days at each urban weather station, each year for the last 10 or 15 years, and were there floods there on those days?)
– what they are doing about it.
It all boils down to this: without data, no one is any the wiser.