Ladies and Gentlemen,
Singapore's state controlled newspapers online edition of Sept 9, 2010 has the story "Floods hit Little India, CBD". It says "A heavy downpour more than 2 hours in the late morning on Wednesday caused flash floods in several city areas. Worst hit was Little Inida, around Jalan Besar, Rowell Road and Hindoo Road traffic snarled and businesses were affected."
It says water was ankle deep. However pictures of the flood show water half way up cars which looks more like a couple of feet.
This sort of flooding in Singapore is even worse than what happened in Pakistan. There it was caused by the monsoons, which comes once a year. Rest of the year it is dry. In Singapore on the other hand, flooding is not caused by monsoons but by the daily evaporation and condensation of water vapour, which rises, condenses in high altitudes and comes down as rain.
As climate change has caused air temperature to rise, and rising, the air itself can contain a much larger volume of water vapour, which in turn means it now it does not just rain, the sky opens its floodgates with a ton of water just dropping from the sky.
This is why you have these increasingly frequent floods, which, I am sad to say, consequent on the constant and progressive increase of air temperature, is going to be more and more frequent, more and more intense, and the flooding deeper and even more widespread.
Soon, in the not too distant future, the entire island would be flooded, save Bukit Timah hill.
With the flooding increasing and more widespread, it is going to flood even more basement car parks than in the past, many which contain electrical boxes, causing fire and human fatalities. It is also going to flood the underground rail system trapping trains underground and drowning passengers trapped in trains and underground platforms.
And mind you, the entire city of Singapore, a tiny piece of land 16 miles across and 26 miles vertical, is only a few feet above water. And this small piece of land contains no less than 5 million people, which the government intends to increase very soon to 6.5 million.
In order to house this population into this tiny strip of land, the government is going to build even more concrete high rise apartments into a space which is already packed like sardines, generating even more heat, and thereby creating even more intense flooding.
The warmer the air temperature, the more the flooding.
I wish I could say these floods were once in a lifetime occurrence which one government minister claimed and which has been roundly disproved, or at least that it is going to be the same. No the prognosis is more calamitous than that, I am sorry to say. The frequency of these floods is going to progressively increase because of climate change. There will come a time I fear that Singapore cannot accommodate a million people, let alone 6.5 million unless it is turned somehow into an equatorial Venice.
I fear businesses leaving en masse, the recent immigrants turning around and going home and Lee Kuan Yew, once dead, results in his million dollar minister also turning around and heading to higher ground, not in Singapore but elsewhere.
To be fair, Lee Kuan Yew and his friends are only partly liable. True, they thoughtlessly kept on building massive structures and flooded the island (pardon the pun) with immigrants. But as for what Mother Nature is doing to Singapore, they cannot be faulted.
After all even lee Kuan Yew cannot stop the rain.
Gopalan Nair
39737 Paseo Padre Parkway, Suite A1
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6 comments:
LKY must be fuming mad that you say he cannot stop the rain.
LKY thinks he can.
When asked, none of my acquaintances in their 60s today can recall when the flooding was ever this widespread and prolonged throughout the island. The odd spots in Upper Serangoon, areas along Thompson Road near the flower nurseries and parts of Bukit Timah were vulnerable if storms were unusually severe but very rarely around the Rochor/Little India segment. And they always cleared up swiftly after the rain had subsided. Not now.
Something has to have gone seriously wrong in S'pore's management of its water resources and hydrology. Any rational government would simply say so, roll up its sleeves and fix the problem transparently. After all, what exactly is the big deal? Not this government though. They would sooner rip (your) limbs off than ever lose face by admitting to an error. And they haven't disappointed us this time either.
True to form and in the best traditions of Saddam's Comical Ali, they actually had the jaw-dropping gall to announce this National Day, the award of the Distinguished Service Order to the Chairman of the PUB, Mr. Tan Gee Paw, ostensibly for solving Singapore's perennial flood problems! ROFL! This is of course the embarrassing aquatic equivalent of Perm Sec Tan Yong Soon's crass public boast last year that he spent $50,000 on a 2-week cooking course in Paris while unemployed Singaporeans begged the PAP government for handouts. Not funny. The civil service pays this gentleman the grotesque sum of approx SGD$700k per annum, while President Obama earns SGD$537k. Truly, the megalomania has reached the 'Let them eat cake' level in the Republic. It must be time to call in the guillotine suppliers.
In 2000 when I spoke of more frequent flooding that will happen in Singapore in the future, none of my in-laws believed me. They laughed at me and said that Singapore is getting bigger with land reclamation, not smaller and therefore no flooding is possible.
Now in 2010, I am proven right as I sit in front of my beautiful lawn in Canada. My in-laws are still living in blind ignorant bliss in Singapore.
Fingers have been pointed at global warming, rising sea levels and the marina barrage. But I think the simple reason is the building boom resulting from population growth and quest for developed nation status. We have learned in school that deforestation in the highlands leads to monsoon floods in the lowlands because trees and vegetation help absorb rainwater. With our increased urbanisation and population growth, large swathes of forest and mangroves swamps have been paved, or concrete poured over them, so when it rains, nothing holds back the water (like rainwater in the Mojave desert). The well-paid PAP ministers and civil service etc seem to have forgotten this in their quest for higher GDP. It hardly rains in or near deserts, so floods are rare. But it rains almost once every 2-3 days in S'pore, so you'll see more floods.
In a week, there is 3 to 4 times of heavy down pour. And alot of road work here and there. everyday there is people dying in every part of Singapore. His days are counting.
who will take over the new generation? or is this coming to the end of it? what will happen next, nobody knows...
In a week, there is 3 to 4 times of heavy down pour. And alot of road work here and there. everyday there is people dying in every part of Singapore. His days are counting.
who will take over the new generation? or is this coming to the end of it? what will happen next, nobody knows...
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