Vivian Bala on Flood Problem
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Dr Vivian: The flood problem is difficult to solve and I cannot guarantee outcomes
In a rather candid post on his blog about the latest spate of flooding to hit Singapore yesterday morning, the new Minister of Environment and Water Resources Dr Vivian Balakrishnan who was only two weeks into his job wrote in tacit admission that he is not familiar with his work:
“After touring some affected buildings (the worst affected was Tanglin Mall), I met the press to share my preliminary thoughts on the issue of flooding. Preliminary because I have only been two weeks on the job, and I am not an engineer.”
Despite a series of flood-preventive measures put up by PUB last year, Orchard was submerged in floodwater again as Tanglin became the hardest area hit this time.
The immediate ‘preliminary’ thought which came to Dr Vivian’s mind is that the frequent flooding is caused by greater rainfall resulting from global warming:
“With global warming, and high evaporation, we should also expect greater rainfall, especially in the tropics. If so, then we should be psychologically and practically prepared for even more intense storms in the future.”
Dr Vivian promised to take urgent action to ensure the safety of the public and to work with other state agencies to protect buildings and to keep the roads passable in the event of heavy rain.
However Dr Vivian was quick to manage expectations and sounded defeatist when he wrote that he cannot ‘guarantee’ outcomes:
“A resident posted on the Holland Bukit Timah facebook wall that “It is nothing too difficult to solve”. I’m afraid it is actually quite difficult to solve. Therefore I cannot guarantee outcomes.”
As one TR reader put it succinctly:
“The government transferred Yaacob Ibrahim (a Civil Engineer) from the Environment ministry to Arts and Communication and have an eye doctor in charge of the Environment ? If Yaacob Ibrahim, a civil engineer couldnt fix the flood problem, how is V Balakrishnan, an eye doctor expected to do it ?”
Singaporeans better pray hard that the ‘once in fifty year’ floods will not be turned into a ‘once in fifty day’ event soon under the continued management of the inept PUB and an equally clueless Minister.
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Practically and theoretically hopeless Vivian. Paid him millions cannot solve problems.
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poor drainage systems.its gov fault.how come spore get so many flooding?what about indonesia?any flooding?what about malaysia?thailand?burma?do u see any flooding in neighbouring countries then ufo must be out at werk securing all the rain and flooding spore thru nonstop rain. its gov fault.no one is resposnible for forcasting and planning than the gov!
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Originally posted by Director Hitman:
poor drainage systems.its gov fault.how come spore get so many flooding?what about indonesia?any flooding?what about malaysia?thailand?burma?do u see any flooding in neighbouring countries
then ufo must be out at werk securing all the rain and flooding spore thru nonstop rain.
its gov fault.no one is resposnible for forcasting and planning than the gov!
We pay them millions and this is how the vivian sissy treating the matter. -
He better stay put in his medical profession. He is just not cut out to be a minister. Gave up CEO of a large public hospital to become Minister/MP, bad choice.
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Well, nothing new...this is just expectations management. There's PR involved. All it takes is one bright chap to come out with some solid words that this problem can be solved.
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All the while since young, i thot only poor villages get flooded...orchard road and those rich people places get flooded? Omg, singapore, really unique
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Sad the once in 50 year flood happened again.
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It ok, as long as HDB dun get flooded, it should be fine. Those rich can take care themselves
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Originally posted by angel7030:
It ok, as long as HDB dun get flooded, it should be fine. Those rich can take care themselves
PAP can pray to Lao Lee diety after he die to get protection from floods. -
how can he solved it
hawker centre food court restuarant
30.00 sing per month also DULAN to give
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If oxley rise and dunman road got no flood, no body gives a damn,
There is hard any technical way can you prevent a flood from a heavy rainfall that fall on singapore within a few minutes equivalent to 77% of our annual rainfall statistic.
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They have to build in safety factor when they designed the size of the drainage system.
Stop using figures and statistics to hoodwink the public.
If they are not determined to resolve this issue, what other stuff they can solve ?
Stop using excuses of not being engineer.
For heaven's sake, you are the minister and you can utilised all the engineer's brain to find a solution to the issue.
Or else the committee that was set up last year to solve the flood problem should be punished as the problem resurfaced on other parts of Singapore and Orchard Road again.
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What's the point of paying millions to this person if he can't solve problems in his own Ministry?
Might as well pay $2,000 to an idiot, he will give you the same answer.
His predecessor cited 50 year freak event, while he cites global warming.
Nothing can be done? Install pumps to drain out water from from the drains at a faster rate lah, dodo.
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Originally posted by βÎτά:
What's the point of paying millions to this person if he can't solve problems in his own Ministry?
Might as well pay $2,000 to an idiot, he will give you the same answer.
His predecessor cited 50 year freak event, while he cites global warming.
Nothing can be done? Install pumps to drain out water from from the drains at a faster rate lah, dodo.
the problem is, drain out water from wheelock area and then channel to forum and tanglin mall..
next time u might see drained water being released to hdb area.. maybe really soon, yesterday PIE near jurong west area water level near ankle...
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Singapore has been developing and building too fast.
When there are not enough green spaces, the water cannot enter the ground, it runs into the drains. That's why we didn't have floods for so many years.
Stupid government didn't build drains when the population increased.
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Originally posted by βÎτά:
What's the point of paying millions to this person if he can't solve problems in his own Ministry?
Might as well pay $2,000 to an idiot, he will give you the same answer.
His predecessor cited 50 year freak event, while he cites global warming.
Nothing can be done? Install pumps to drain out water from from the drains at a faster rate lah, dodo.
A minister cannot be paid $2,000 because nobody will listen to him.
As one MP aptly put it, it's a dignity issue.
You need to pay him millions so that people will be bothered to listen to him, even if his reasoning goes along the lines of "once in 50 years event"
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Difficult to solve or unwilling to spend money? Or need tenants or shop owners to bear some costs?
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poor vivian
his new seat haben sit warm yet then kena this.
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payback for the proposed amendments to women charter...
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Originally posted by Gerberad:
the problem is, drain out water from wheelock area and then channel to forum and tanglin mall..
next time u might see drained water being released to hdb area.. maybe really soon, yesterday PIE near jurong west area water level near ankle...
obviously we need to drain the water towards the river or sea lah... even you know drain those water to other places won't resolve the problem, so use the solution that solves the problem lor. -
hmmmm......sounds bad for vivi........maybe he should go setup a medical clinic or something....i dont think demoting him to another post is going to work with him.
issues with flooding:
1)flood with persons getting killed....1 and counting.
2)damaged credibility of singapore
3)flooding in city and business districts
4)more stories,excuses and ten commandment stories....complete with 100 year old man holding a stone tablet.
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Originally posted by FireIce:
poor vivian
his new seat haben sit warm yet then kena this.
its not if seat is warm or cold.......he lacks the fire....he has lost it...he has lost his mojo......
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how a professional person with meagre salary( $1000/month) after deduction from CPF and food would solve simple flood problem:
get a team of engineers,section people and kids.
get them to calculate every longanng n storm drain in prime positions.
build or maintain.
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if vivi said he cant solve and guarantee issues.then his mind is not geared to werk.
if i were a boss and i heard any of my worker said he cant solve the issues with everything as his disposal and paid him a king's ransom every year ...i would get a team of big negros with muscles so huge on their arms that they can hardly reach their behind.......i can only see the worker jump and jump everytime he sits down for the next 5 years.
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