The best defense is an offense. But who's in charge of the floods ?
Minister to PUB: A flood is a flood By Chua Yini Article:
The Public Utilities Board's (PUB) usage of the word "ponding" to describe several incidents of flooding at Liat Towers was inappropriate, said Minister of Environment and Water Resources Dr. Vivian Balakrishnan on Monday.
Speaking in Parliament, the Minister said: “As far as I am concerned, PUB should not have used the word ‘ponding’. I call a spade a spade. A flood is a flood.â€
“As long as there's water accumulating somewhere where it's not supposed to be, as long as it has implications on human safety, business operations, that is a flood, and it is a problem that needs to be solved,†he said.
In response to the incident, the PUB stated that “there was no flooding at Orchard Roadâ€, but that water had “ponded†at Liat Towers and other low-lying locations.
However, others feel that more should be done to alleviate the problem, instead of finding fault with the PUB’s word usage.
Said Jean Chia, 28, a teacher: “The issue should not be the choice of word the PUB used, but what is being done to solve the problem.â€
Similarly, Xie Ying, 23, a data analyst, is more concerned about the measures taken to prevent another incident of flooding.
“People don’t care what word you use. They care more about what you do,†she said.
It has
invested $2 billion over the past 30 years to reduce the low-lying flood prone areas from 3200 hectares in the 1970s to today's 49 hectares.
Mr Balakrishnan observed in Parliament that
increasing rainfall and urbanization are making flood prevention efforts more difficult. As such, greater collaboration between ministries is needed.
In June last year, 124mm rain fell over four hours in Orchard Road, causing the Tanglin area to be flooded by 100mm.
Last month, over three hours of rain caused water levels to rise as high as 153mm.
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