Canal works to begin only a year after “freak” flooding of Bukit Timah
November 23rd, 2009 | 
Author: Written by Our Correspondent
Soon after the “freak” storm last Thursday which appeared to take both the diversion canal as well as Minister for Environment Mr Yaacob by surprise, the ruling party has moved in quickly to limit the damage from the fallout.
The PAP MP for Bukit Timah Mr Christopher de Souza assured residents that PUB will act fast to widen and deepen a diversion canal to prevent a repeat of last Thursday’s flood.
However, works on the canal leading from the main Bukit Timah canal will only begin in the third quarter of next year.
The 3km canal stretching from Sixth Avenue to Sungei Ulu Pandan burst its banks on Thursday, when Bukit Timah was drenched by 92mm of rain. Flood waters were knee-high in some places.
The underground carparks in three buildings in the area – two condominiums and the 6th Avenue Centre – were flooded last Thursday, running up huge repair bills for several cars.
The canal was built in the early 1970s. It was not known why they have not been expanded after nearly 3 decades.
Mr Yaacob claimed that the storm was a “freak” event which occurs only once in fifty years, but he used the same excuse for another flooding back in 2006 when heavy rain caused excess water from the MacRitchie and Upper Seletar reservoirs to overflow and flood the surrounding areas.
In an interview with Channel News Asia, Mr Yaacob said:
“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.”
Since the works on expanding the canal will only begin next year and may take more than a year for completion, this means that Bukit Timah residents will be completely left to the mercy of the weather in the meantime.
Mr Yaacob became the Minister of Environment and Water Resources in 2005. He did not explain why he did not order the expansion of the canals during his 5-year tenure.
The damage to the properties in the affected areas is still being calculated. It is not mentioned if the government will shoulder part of the responsibility.
Mr Yaacob is probably the highest paid Minister of Environment in the year. His annual salary is estimated to be about $2 million a year or $166,000 a month, far more than the monthly median wage of $4,500 for the ordinary Singapore worker.
Related articles:
>> Yaacob caught out wet by another freak event again
>> Bukit Timah residents unhappy about freak storm
>> Yaacob: Bukit Timah flooding is a freak event
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13 Responses to “Canal works to begin only a year after “freak” flooding of Bukit Timah”
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Mr Yaacob is probably the highest paid Minister of Environment in the year.
What to expect from this highest paid minister. Linked to private sector 6th highest pay?
What is his KPI?
Was his performance good?
You can be a judge of his work.
A cover up story for inefficiency and poor planning.
I think the Ministers and government officials need to hire better speech writers, as they have been shooting their own feet over the last few furores.
When faced when dealing with the current issues, they should say something to assure the people or the victims, and not just tell them to suck it up
Yahooo…election coming for sure
Getting more than $100,000 a month for doing sweet FO!
Still want to shake legs for another year?
SM Goh stays in the Bt Timah Area, together with some other very important personalities too.
Shall we rename the Ministry of Environment and Water Works to Ministry of Excuses and Without Works?
Normal days with such problem, they always turn a deaf ear,
Remember the last Election, where such incident has occur in Bedok North, co-incidently was during the Election time.The next days U have the job done.
The flooding of the Bukit Timah area, supposedly the highest part of the island, was obviously a freak occurrence.
Remember the recent freak incident in which a lightning bolt ominously struck the Merlion’s head of all things, it being one of very lower structures among many much higher structures in the vicinity, especially the 3 prominent high structures under construction at the Marina Resort.
If that was not a freak occurence, I don’t know what is.
Now, we have this freak Bukit Timah floods, which we have never seen in 50 years. Flooding has little to do with poor drainage alone, because even with the improved drainage, floods can still occur in future. What is needed for floods to occur is a big (freakish) enough downpour which lasts for an extended period of time.
Come to think of it, lightning precedes a downpour. I find it rather eerie in fact. Do Fengshui-minded followers have any comment?
Thanks to ‘Yakult’ using the word ‘freak’. I hope the coming election will be a ‘freak’ result too whereby the PAP will suffer heavy losses.
Lightning, flood, earthquake, tornado and epidermic (had occur already). Tsunami, typhoon had not occurred yet. In olden China times it is a belief that improper masters in the imperial dynasty will cause natural disasters and I think this is happening to Singapore now.
I predict a bigger earthquake will rock Singapore within these few years as part of my “once in 50 years” predictions. Has our govt prepared for it yet?
i don’t know abt fengshui, but i find some of our so-called fengshui experts are just playing to the gallery. i remember one “fengshui master” said that struck-merlion has helped singapore to 挡灾 . obviously, this “master” has not been reading the news lately.
I am sure the votes will be unaffected given its Bukit Timah.
Move out or stop the constructions / developement in BT. You have yourself to blame in promoting it. Is it that luxury that a natural disaster cannot struck it??
The money should be spend for those in need of a shelter rather than a canal.
one of the condos affected is Tessarina right?
which is the other one? anyone know?
dowan to end up buying the wrong one.
Great post this will really help me.