Yaacob: Bukit Timah flooding is a “freak” event
November 21st, 2009 | 
Author: Written by Our Correspondent
Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Yaacob Ibrahim described the flooding of parts of Bukit Timah on Thursday as a “freak” event that occurs once in 50 years.
“What happened was very unusual. ‘The intensity was tremendous. We knew the diversion canal was not big enough to take this,” he added.
Mr Yaacob was referring to the diversion canal from the main Bukit Timan canal which was built in 1972.
Following the flooding which damaged the buildings, amenities and cars in the area, PUB has called for tenders to widen the canals in Bukit Timah.
Dr Yaacob did not explain why the canals were not widened earlier to prepare for this “freak” event”. He claimed that it is “not possible” to plan for every event.
“I hope the public will have more patience with us because it will take us some time to enlarge those drains. But having said that, it is not possible for us to plan for every event,” he said.
It does appear that Dr Yaacob as well as the National Enviroment Agency are both caught out cold by the “sudden” storm.
A netizen posted on STOMP a snapshot of the NEA’s online weather map which did not reflect the heavy rain during the time when there was flooding at Dunearn Road.
She said:
“This (the above) was shown on the NEA website at 3.32pm. It showed that only a minor part of northern Singapore was raining. However, a check outside my office window showed heavy rain and flooding along Dunearn Road.”
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they are lazy, that’s why.
The rain may have been a freak event.
Flooding, on the other hand, is something that can be controlled through the design and employment of a good drainage system.
As a matter of fact, pap did not plan for everything that beneit Singaporeans. They are interested in how much GDP for this year and next and how much billion$$$ bonuses they will get. This is a typical greedy government. Compassion has never ever been written on their face but when $$$ is concerned, they are the first in the queue while Singaporeans have to fight with Foreign trash and have our $$ depressed beyond recognition.
Time for Change Readers.
Yaacob actually dares to reuse his “freak event” again. Remember the last major flooding when he used it?
Singapore is truly an exceptional country.
Freak events occurs frequently.
A bit of history in 2006 to refresh Yaacob
Channel NewsAsia 21 Dec 06
Businesses along East Coast suffering due to rain
By Valarie Tan
PUB says the recent heavy rain caused excess water from the MacRitchie and Upper Seletar reservoirs to overflow. Reservoirs are designed to hold a certain amount of water, but when there is too much rain, excess water will still spill.
At Upper Seletar Reservoir, excess water was released into the sea by opening the tide gates.
Dr Yaacob Ibrahim, Environment and Water Resources Minister, says: “You can’t design for rainfall of this level, it is just too huge. The thing we can accept is that we can only design our canal of a certain size, and at the end of the day, we have to live with some of these occurrences which occur once in 50 years or so. I know it is inconvenient to some Singaporeans, but on the part of PUB and NEA, we’ll do our best to alleviate the problem as quickly as possible.”
The wet spell is likely to continue and NEA expects more flash floods in low-lying areas with high tides hitting 3.1 metres till Christmas Day.
The roads at the affected areas are back to normal and the spillage at MacRitchie Reservoir has ceased. – CNA/so
My comment: Looks like we are having more of these “freak” 1 in 50 years events. we got 2 in less than 3 years.
imaginary Yaacob’s reply:”oops, did i say that?”
i suggest keep yaacob’s statement in archives and see whether he will repeat his “one in 50 years” statement in another “freak” flooding event due in next 5 years or less.
“I hope the public will have more patience with us because it will take us some time to enlarge those drains. But having said that, it is not possible for us to plan for every event,” he said.”
And people must also expect those big rats there to migrate from BT to Geylang Serai market soon.
If the PS of the Ministry of Environment could go on a five-week leave to learn cooking at Cordon Bleu in France, that alone speaks volumes about his Boss’ management of staff and sense of urgency for work-in-progress, who is the Yaya Yacoob.
Simply dismissing the flood as a freak will not do him any good. That is a lame excuse.
The fact is that since 1972, the Ministry of Environment did nothing to improve on the condition of the drainage in Bukit Timah. He seems to be happy about it. It gives me an impression that his Ministry is a switched-off ministry without much to do .
His PS not only could go on a 5-week leave, but could also write books. That means he has a lot of time for leisure, while other PSs in other Ministries have to slog day and night, and most of the time get their annual leave forfeited.
I wonder what “Doctorate” he has and from where did he get that title? How come he said it is not possible to plan for every event? Of course nobody can plan for every event. But that is not every event. That is only one event, which is probable. Taking into consideration the past incidents, that is a possible scenario. For all those years, since 1972, no thoughts have been put into it. I wonder what kind of schools did he go to?
This kind of leadership quality can qualify of a 2 million dollars salary per annum? 4 times that of President Obama!
PAP is really on the decline, no doubt about it. It is time for a drastic change. Yes we need. Yes we can!
maybe we need more freak events.
VOTE OPPOSITION FOR LEE KUAN YEW’S MOST FEARED ‘FREAK ELECTION’ RESULTS.
Let’s see if pap is prepared for that.
QUOTE “What happened was very unusual. ‘The intensity was tremendous. We knew the diversion canal was not big enough to take this,” UNQUOTE
Thats why Bukit Batok always have dengue mosquitoes flying around the estates BUT at its peak, I was lucky because I was away in Jakarta having Haze Conference at that time.
The PAP ellistes are not concern about any plan either in social activities ….etc. They only care to look at their Monthly Bank Statment! Accumulation of how many extra 000000000
Dr Yaacob has short memory as those 2 places in BT and Upp. Thomson Road were flooded just few years ago during Christmas sending pine trees and fishes swimming on the roads.
His ministry didn’t do a good job handling dengue fever in Bukit Batok and rats poisoning incident in Geylang Serai market.
Uniquely Singapore. It is standard civil engineering practice to plan for a once in 100 year storm. So there is definitely NO EXCUSE for a once in 50 year storm to cause this sort of havoc.
The lessons of Joan Road in Dec 19, 2006 have been learnt. The tiny little stream that Macritchie Reservoir discharges into has since been widened and deepened to cope with such an event. Which proves that action can and should be taken, but wasn’t.
Also, given that the Bukit Timah Canal drains into both the Pandan River and the Kallang River, why weren’t the emergency drainage pumps at the Marina Barrage activated? That would have lowered the level of the Kallang River quickly, accelerating the drainage of the Bukit Timah Canal. So why wan’t this done?
All these beg the question: why are we paying our government ministers and elite scholars so much when they’re no better than nay ordinary local lesser mortal, and indeed have shown many times that lesser mortals are actually smarter than they are?
it is entirely possible for 2 “1 in 50 years” events to happen within a few years of each other.
It is in fact very common.
And it is utterly irresponsible to overcompensate for freak floods. There’s always going to be the next freak event that trumps all your new safeguards.
It’s sad to see ppl using this event to push their anti gov agenda, when it really has nothing to do with gov planning. If this flood hadn’t happened, and PUB announced tommorrow they were spending XXXmillion to enlarge a cannal that hasn’t flooded in 40 years, you’ll be seeing the same ppl coming in here to complain.
When they lose an election, it’s a “freak” election.
When there’s a flood, it’s a “freak” flood.
When Mas Selamat escapes, it’s a “freak” escape.
When MPs are attack, they’re attacked by “freaks”.
So many “freaking” things happening in Sinapore?? LOL
I must say, even if we are really anti-PAP, guys, let’s not take it too far! This was a flash flood and even if we had a more humanitarian and kind government, this might still have happened… let’s not hang them for everything…doing so diminishes our voice when the issue calls for genuine concerns.
Thanks,
A non-PAP supporter
Oh and I think the money can be better spent elsewhere than on expanding the bloody bukit timah canal….
So once in 50 years…and therefore not to worry until the next 50 years! Is this what our Minister is saying? Is this the kind of calibre which MM lee called the best that you can find?
to ohboy
i am not pushing any anti-gov agenda and i won’t complain if govt spend money to enlarge canal or perform better operationally as stated by Darth vader.
in engineering terms, we talk of margin of safety (charlie munger,buffett’s friend has emphasized this), you won’t want to drive a 5 tonner over a bridge that is designed for 5 tonnes.
so it will not be irresponsible to overcompensate as we never could predict the future. of course, i agree there are limits to it subject to the cost-benefit analysis.
What i don’t like is yacoob’s attitude, as you can see from my post, he repeated the same statement twice. in a true democracy, you do not cover up your mistakes, but you apologize and make amends. this is called accountability.
I hear its 1 month rainfall in just 1 day. Anyone wanto contribute how big a cannel we need?
@Fievel
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with speaking out on all the individual government inefficiencies or mistakes, nor would it dilute the clout of critics speaking out on larger issues.
First of all, ministrial departments that are genuine about doing their work would appreciate the greater clarity on the issues they need to work on, as well as expose ministry workers who try to cover up their mistakes.
Secondly, ministries that don’t do their work to satisfaction can be hauled up for public shaming. Here in Singapore, we already suffer from the lack of a truly inquisitive media to do all the investigations and expose wrong-doings or incompetence by the government. If we, as the citizens do not step up to the plate and compensate for the vacuum by proactively giving feedback (and criticising ministers for doing an abysmal job), the quality of our country’s management would eventually suffer, as it has now.
Is the MARINA BARRAGE open or closed?
Is the MARINA BARRAGE open or closed? If the water level is the same as the sea water, what is the point of building it?? The last time wheb such flooding occur was about 10 years ago, but the MARINE BARRAGE was not built yet.
Hope that building the BARRAGE was not a mistake as MM Lee said the bi-lingual policy was was wrong!
We should expect a freak election result soon too!
Oh, u call that a canal? kekekeke
own incompetence explained away as nature freaks’. major disastrous mistake – it can’t be helped, let’s move on. news blackout e.g. KK near-fatal blunder.
I wonder how many PAPie ministers live in Bt Timah posh area and got their cars caught in the flood or got stranded and needing helicopter evacuation – this is indeed poetic justice to their own kind from the one in charge of widening the Bt Timah canal – has it been a decade already and still freakish?
People are saying that the govt should have foreseen the rainfall levels and widened the canals.
But let’s not focus on the benefits of canal widening and forget the costs.
Like commenters above has pointed out, it is irresponsible to simply take the safe approach and overcompensate, for the money used might have been better spent elsewhere.
Note that I’m not suggesting Yaacob is correct this time, just that we need more cost-benefit analysis to evaluate the circumstances.
Mindless govt bashing on every “bad” thing that happens in Singapore just makes us look like fools.
oh my god! so this is a “freak” event that happen once in 50 years. Did they plan to send in the army that afternoon? no?….
let’s hope we will have a real election result after all the “freak” results in the past 44 years.
QUOTE“I hope the public will have more patience with us because it will take us some time to enlarge those drains. But having said that, it is not possible for us to plan for every event,” he said.UNQUOTE
45 years still not enough? How long is Dr.Yaacob going to take to enlarge those drains…..another 45 years?
haha singapore sinking into the ocean haha
Fievel on Sat, 21st Nov 2009 1:01 pm
Agreed with you.
Dr.Yaacob is a very busy man (the photo doesn’t reflect the truth) taking care of the regional haze situation affecting 500 billion ASEAN people, so this small canal, little flood, tiny mosquitoes and silly rats are minor matters. Plse be more patience with him.
this yacob siamz again after the geylang serai case.
there’s a big diff between Plan to Fail and Fail to Plan.
Pls give us a million $ solution and not a 10ct excuse.
“sudden” storm.
Its the fault of the weatherman. He never give signal or warning that its going to be so sudden. He was caught with his pants down.
And the money paid to him as salary worth millions too can be better used for other things.
His Environment ministry rated my stall with a big “C”. I will rate his ministry with a big “F”.
I think it’s good that the part of bukit timah that got flooded houses some of the richest and politically powerful in Singapore. A lesson from the heavens to punish them for their impudence towards the common people.
I agree with you. The money should be used somewhere else than just to upgrade a rich man’s hub in Bukit Timah’s Sixth Avenue. For example, help the poor foot their conservancy charge for a couple of months until they find employment. Or for example, help the disabled by subsidizing their education expenses.
Two UNIQUELY SINGAPORE “rags-to-riches” success stories:
Dr Yaacob Ibrahim [former/unknown university lecturer drawing a truly "peanut" salary] and…
…Wong Kan Seng [former/unknown school teacher drawing a truly "peanut" salary]
How BOTH became “instant millionaires” by “singing the PAP tune” ie Yacob became $2m MEWR Minister and Wong Kan Seng became $3m Deputy Prime Minister.
Yacob — his “freak flooding” dismissive/cursory comment.
Wong Kang Seng — the “freak escape” in the Mas Selamat Great Escape Monumental Fiasco.
Upgrade drainage won’t get vote la…spend $10000000 million to integrate the “new citizen” will get vote mah…..
Tender for what!?! He said it happens ONCE IN 50 YEARS.
HOORAY!
Since it has happened once ALREADY, there won’t be flooding in the next 50 years. So its silly to even bother asking for a tender to winden the canal since it won’t flood for the next 50 years.
this yacob ibrahim fella ,got a very senang- senang(easy) job,just jaga lau sai chui (newater) and drains,sewrages and dusbins (environment) lagi Professor title some more.wah lau hoi!!! lucky not in-charge of Pest Control
his monthly pay how much huh?
Freak Floods, Freak Escape, Freak Election – I think Singapore ministers are all Freaking Out.
Now, I know why they pay themselves the world’s highest salary. They are all Freaks – not genuinely interested in the welfare of the people. Remember, “Welfare is a Dirty Word”?
So we are a nation of Freaks?
Freaking citizens of a Freaking Nation should be able to make that Freak Election comes true, is it not?
what has yacob been doing as environment minister?
after the rojak poisoning incident now flash flood
let’s see what’s next coming up. yacob the screwed up third season coming up soon!
I don’t believe in opposing for the sake of opposing. In this case I don’t think man or machine could predict nature accurately. Even if the drains are widened and the drainage system improved, how sure are we the next storm that comes will not cause flooding? I don’t think we should take every opportunity to blame the government. This is nature’s work so let’s be fair and not get overly emotional just because the water level rises up to your knees and got your BATA shoes wet. However, we should remain concern as if this problem occurs like ten, twenty times a year probably, the drainage system really needs an overhaul.
I hear the loyalist’s excuse that it was `one month’s rain in one day’ so presumably the loyalist is trying to argue it is not possible to widen the Bukit Timah canal and agreeing that it is a once a 50 year freak incident.
So to cover up the freak floods and the enormous damage they caused, we hear these crappy lame duck excuses. One month rain in one day indeed! Or three days medicine in three hours cos’ machines look alike pathetic reason.
Ya we must be patient, blah blah blah. The heavens do not discriminate – rich or poor, palaces or shacks, the rewards and punishment fall evenly.
I’m confused… How is the weather the fault of the government? Weather forecasting has never been an exact science.
Furthermore, there are always situations that will test current systems, hence the need for constant upgrading and improvement. New Orleans had an elaborate levee system to prevent flooding, which held against hurricane Andrew. Yet, hurricane Katrina came along and the levee system failed catastrophically, causing massive flooding and property damage. These things happen on a regular basis around the world.
The “once in 50 years” comment seems to be made more in the sense of a statistic. It would mean that there is a probability that the same amount of rain could fall again tomorrow, but it would be exceedingly rare; however, the probability of it happening is still there.
If you simply want to find a reason to launch a personal attack or critique, as so happens to be the case for many of the comments above, I guess you found your article.
TL;DR, I don’t care.
//janetnt
Yeah, and I heard from the minister that this is a one in 50 years occurrence.
Well, this kind of occurrence had happened 2 times in the last 5 years…
The answer to your question is:
we definitely need a canal wider / deeper / bigger than the one we are having now in BT because the current canal is not good enough.
//reader
agree that money needs to be well spent and in this case, the benefit is entirely under-estimated much like the benefits of investment in shaky banks have been over-estimated.
The people doing these studies are entirely cock up.
loyalist asked “How is the weather the fault of the government?” – let’s not detract from the main points raised.
Nobody blames the govt for the freak weather but that whole bunch of highly paid talents who for decades were tasked to deal with the effects of inclement weather and failed spectacularly.
Yaacoob’s “freak” event will translate into a “freak” election in his GRC in the coming election. Rightfully he should volunteer to step down on his own before the next “freak” election so as not embarrass the PAP. But (sigh, sigh, sigh) no, as long as there is so much stratospheric multi-million-dollar salary for him to lose he will cling on tightly to his dear overpaid job, just like his overpaid and under-caring perm sec who has so much free time to go on a very expensive five-week holiday just to learn cooking in France. PAP also cannot sack him because DPM Wong Kan Seng has already set the precedence of continuing in power even after the Mat Selamat fiasco.
A bit groggy on this strange one – a freaky event of once in 50 years needed immediate attention and resolution. Residents of Potong Pasir and Hougang must be scratching their heads to bleeding of the scalp why they have been waiting for decades and still waiting for their overly-hyped and highly-politicised LUP.
I guess it is the “right” Bukit NOT the “wrong” Bukit got flooded and impeded of a comfortable limousine ride for the elitist very rich.
Get Real. Voters noticed, don’t you?
janetnt, I have actually done construction work in the Bukit Timah area, and I can tell you that the water table there is very high. Go check a dictionary if you don’t know what “water tableAny intelligent person will tell you that such an area will flood very quickly in heavy rain. For that reason the enlargement of the canal (note the correct spelling) is necessary. And you didn’t answer the question why the flood pumps in the Marina Barrage (another project I also worked on) weren’t activated. Please comment only if you actually have a clue as to what is actually happening instead of blindly supporting the government all the time like you do.
For the other pro-government voices here, nobody is blaming the government for failing to predict the storm. What everybody is blaming them for is their “it’s not my responsibility” attitude.
Especially since they’re so severely overpaid.
I’m sorry, it should be what “water table” means.
This yaacob guy wasn’t concerned or interested at all in Keeping Singapore Clean. He only likes flying around attending haze conferences and cannot sit still. Lets change him.
A freak event even if people show kindness and forgive, how can people forgive the lack of flood prevention in the infrastructure?
I am sure this is not the first time the place flooded.
Its no freak. Low lying terrains will get flooded based on geography sec1 level.
singapore is so small. pls be preventive and preemptive and not reactive.
Well, the last flood of such scale was not 50 years ago! The most serious flood happened in the 70s. While such flash floods happened few years ago as some readers had correctly pointed out. The problem is the PAP gov did not pay attention to such issue and point their finger to freak weather as the scape goat!
The minister should answer to the people, 1st world Singapore cannot cope with flash flood?? If you say the canals are blocked, then it may be a more believable story!
Freak Weathers? What sort of freak minister we have??
WE MISSED DR LEE BOON YANG !
At the annual Patron of The Arts Award organised by the National Arts Council, we donors, regardless of amount contributed to the arts were all given the honour to receive an award, shake hands and post for photo with MICA Minister who confers the awards. For the past 2 years I was deeply impressed by Dr Lee Boon Yang’s ( then MICA Minister) warmth, sincerity, patience and kindness, by standing on stage for 45 mins to personally hand over the awards to some 200 recipients. although the ceremony was long we were touched by a Minister that really cares.
Sad that we had missed all these nice gesture last Friday, as the new Minister no longer did that , instead ,beneficiaries were asked to give away the awards. Suddenly, the whole ceremony has lost its meaning, the purpose of POA was lost. Is this the new style of young ministers ? we wonder.
MM Lee has been our hero and set many good examples, how come he did not MENTOR the new guards? Besides having the capability and expertise, politicians holding high power positions should have good EQ, and community engagement skills.
This is the general feeling of all those supporters who gave $10,000 to $49,999 to the Arts, is the amount too small to deserve that expected honour now?
James Lu
“I hope the public will have more patience with us because it will take us some time to enlarge those drains. But having said that, it is not possible for us to plan for every event,” he said.”
Then why are we paying them $millions? It’s all money down
the drain. Pun unintended.
“But having said that, it is not possiblefor us to plan for every event”
The limping man’s escape was also a ‘freak’ event,happened once in a blue moon.None of you planned it.But some of you
could have ‘prevented’ it.The security procedures were not in order and there was a lapse in guards.All these could have been
implemented and the ‘freak’ incident would not have happened!
How much human resouces and man power and machineries were
mobilized,inconvenience caused etc.etc.in the aftermath of the escape, which could have been prevented.
Similarily,for this ‘freak’ flood,it could have been prevented.
Fortunately, no fatal incident happened this time around.But are we that lucky the second time around?
Hi All,
There are 2 points I would like to point out:
1) Freak Event
With ever worsening global warming and environmental damage, the weather has become unpredictable. Past criteria to determine probability of flash floods and other unusual events might not be applicable anymore. So it is not wise and professional for the minister to say something is freak, especially to say it AGAIN in 2009, after uttering the same word in 2006.
2) Inability to act under duress or contingency
This is a common issue surfacing now and then. The government cannot act in unusual circumstances. As someone has pointed out, PUB could have done something downstream at Marina Barrage to alleviate the flood in Bukit Timah. But it seems they were not aware of the gravity of the situation after a few hours later. So is the installation of early warning detectors a CLEAR indication that PUB was “sleeping” when the flood occurred?!
The “freak” storm aside, what the Ministers and Officials should be doing to reassure or placate the people, is that they should immediately propose corrective measures or actions taken
No one can blame for sudden events, that’s wy they are called sudden.
But to ask Singapore to suck it up and not say anything to reassure them, shows tha tthe Singapore elites has really lost touch with the common people.
As long as their homes remains high and dry, its not their problem to fix