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.
