Yaacob Ibrahim: “Impossible” to keep Singapore completely flood-free
July 19th, 2010 | 
Author: PAP Environment Minister Yaacob Ibrahim, who has received much public opprobrium of late over the frequent flooding in Singapore, appeared nonchalant in Parliament today as he put up a “wayang” together with fellow PAP MPs to answer their questions.
The latest flooding last Saturday affected several areas including Orchard, Changi, Bukit Timah and Upper Thomson.
PUB initially said that a choked drain was responsible for the flooding at Orchard on 16 June this year, but the flood recurred a month later after the debris were cleared.
Instead of offering an apology, Mr Yaacob was quick to find excuses to cover up for his incompetence.
Not only did he not offer an explanation for the latest flooding, he repeatedly emphasized that it was “impossible” to keep Singapore completely flood-free.
In addition, he jumped to PUB’s defense, claiming that he was “satisfied” with PUB’s findings of the Orchard flooding on 16 June.
“PUB has completed the investigation of the flood incident at Orchard Road. The investigation found that the flood was caused by an intense storm,” he was quoted as saying in the Straits Times.
At least five floods have hit Singapore in the span of a month with Orchard being flooded twice, causing millions of dollars of losses to retailers there.
Mr Yaacob was nowhere to be found, seen or heard during these episodes and would only make an “appearance” days later after public anger has subsided. He once said infamously that such floods occurred only “once in fifty years”.
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Maybe he has gone on a 50 year hibernation stint?
he joins a long list of politicians who never apologise
whenever they foul up.
“PUB has completed the investigation of the flood incident at Orchard Road. The investigation found that the flood was caused by an intense storm,” he was quoted as saying in the Straits Times.
What the fiack kind of answer is this? Heavy rain = caused by storm, Sinkaporeans paid him MILLIONS to say this?
Fiack man, even my 3 year old neighbour also know that!
thanks, captain OBVIOUS
anything to do with the barrage? seems like flooding happen after barrage was ready…..
I thought june’s orchard flood was due to choke drain? now it appears that the reason has been changed to intense rain…. so they told the wrong thing the first time round? it wasn’t that the drains were choked? can’t even give a straight answer?
Nobody is asking for “completely flood-free”.
Simple logic : If a multi-million dollar ministar gives singaporean 6 flood a year and a $100,000 dollar ministar gives singaporean 5 flood a year….. WE WANT THE $100,000 DOLLAR MINISTAR and not “completely flood-free”.
The problem lies with the stupid dams were build higher up the sea level.
When it is build higher up the sea level there is a very high chance of reverse flow which means water flows back up stream.
In order to prevent this we need gates to prevent the reverse flow which we lacks. I believe even a daft monkey should be able to identify the problem by now.
PUB has completed the investigation of the flood incident at Orchard Road. The investigation found that the flood was caused by an intense storm,” he was quoted as saying in the Straits Times.
what? after intense investigations,thats all that this over-fed monkeys managed to find out? recently they have make many startling discoveries
like trees have roots…….
Go fly kite lah. Maybe Lee Kuan Yew already moved out of his oxley place to avoid the floor.
People are paid to solve problems. If everything else is so simple and easy, someone else would have been asked to do the job at less than one quarter of the salary. Indeed, may I quote Dick Lee, “Some people are just full of excuses!”. Oh yes, next better player!
So much have been spend on the drainage/canal to alleviate the water flow, yet when flood to orchard road the cause is point to rubbish and debris choke.
Flood in Bukit Timah is caused by freak weather, don,t know what is the causes in various part of the island’s flood last week.
The responsibility is now on the onus of PUB (and private landlord) to solve the flood problem so said the million dollar minister.
When problem arise in this island of sin, be it security or environment it is the private organisations who are neglecting their duties.
The million dollars MIWs will make some speeches rather then analyse the causes.
It’s time to outsource the MIWs position from the future imported 100,000 foreign talents.
It seems the million dollars are MIWs entitlement rather then looking into problem, afterall isn’t the GDP of >10% shows the credibility.
Lets move on and celebrate the national day-”wan wan sui” to the father of singapore
Why are you guys so surprised?
Politicians all over the world only “know how to look for others and something else to blame”. That’s what makes a politician a politician.
True leaders will step forward in the time of crisis, take ownership of the issue and gather the expertise to fix the problem.
They are afraid to speak up because they fear taking ownership: “If you own it and you have to fix it”.
They are behaving like politicans campaigning during elections when they should be governing like leaders in power.
To ensure Singapore to be flood free is the resposibility of the autorities. They had the mandate of 66%. 15% of growth in our ecconomy this year and yet these idiot refuse to fork out money to fix our drainage system. Totally Shameless…
Even a retarded person knows a flood is caused by intense storms….
There was an INVESTIGATION to realize this? WOW….
Since there is nothing he can do, WHY THE HELL are we paying this Yakult joker millions a year??
These idiots got money to hold Kids Olympic, got money to spent on 10 million to integrate foreigner but no money to fix our longkang. what logic is this. Singapore is damn SUAY to have government like them
Seriously! Is this guy intellectually challenged?!?!
Vote for Lightning, get Storm and Flood. What else do you expect?
Singaporeans, it’s squarely your fault.
PAP ministers lack of courages and competency whenever they run into real issues that are not written in their briefing book with proven solution, so they would use outdated execuses, this 3rd generation of PAP leaders are NOWHERE near Goh Keng Swee, Toh Chin Chye and Rajaratham.
two generations down the road, million dollars attracted loyal (to Party) imcompetent govt leaders
>>Nobody is asking for “completely flood-free”.
EXACTLY!
Everytime we “ask” for something – they ALWAYS come up with this lame extreme “complete FREE” reason.
When the Fish did we ask for such…
let’s see. a million dollar salaried worker to give this kind of lame answer, “intense storm”. Even if the flood CANNOT be prevented, at least he could have given some public assurance by recognising the issue and coming out with the next probable steps. Must a private sector worker tell this public servant what to do in his own department and be more humane in coping with this episode? Oh my GOD, please save Singapore from these trashy, self centered, self deluded politicians! People please rally to remove them from their mouldy seats.
In other words, the first flooding on orchard road last month was not really caused by choked drainage. Why then lied to us? Your latest finding now is because of bad design now and stanford canal? What kind of wayang are you acting as a Ministar? You pay yourself 2 million a year to give us shit explanations? You are screwed mate yakult!
This is the new normal.
Once in fifty year events now occur once every nine to twenty-one days. It is impossible to keep your news irony-free. Please be assured that it is not for lack of trying.
Thank you for choosing to sail with Dry Infrastructure Connection (Kallang) Lines. Please keep your life jacket on at all times. Have a nice swim.
TR should not do selected publishing and quotes to push their agenda.
Mod’s Note: Would you mind repeating that statement to the MSM?
PAP don’t take responsibility for anything. They only take big salaries for crying out loud. Lesser mortals like you are the one that is always at fault and your favorite pass time is to complain. Shut up and sit down.
So what if your properties and goods are destroyed. That is your business. “You Die, Your Business”. Who do you want to blame, PAP, you must be crazy.
Vote PAP all daft Singaporeans, that is your duty and its compulsory. Try voting any other thing will cause you misery and sadness with all your properties prices tumbling all over. Without PAP do you think you can survive? This place will probably become a kampong and you can drop line and hook down below to fish for a shark to have a feast with your family.
Certainly his job is the easiest job in the world with such excuses.
My young son can do a better job than him. At least he will apologize.
Yaacob now admits that Stamford Canal is inadequate.. so were Singaporeans being lied to after the first flood?
Show us a picture of the debris PUB claimed!
PAP ministers sounding more and more stupid as the days go by.
Time to sell your property in Singapore and buy in JB. No floods and no traffic jam.
Orchard road has become a stinking wet market, because it is impossible to prevent floods. What world class infrastructure city planners and engineers we have in Singapore. Better don’t build Nuclear facility if you cannot build a drain. You will poison everyone.
PM Lee’s deafening silence is testimony to not standing up to his role and responsibility. He is playing the goody 2 shoes. He is the class monitor of PAP classroom and waiting for MM Teacher to come and whip the students. The well paid President Principal is also keeping quiet.
Yaacob,
Don’t parrot what your boss said previously. We don’t expect Singapore to be completely flood-free, but to have several severe floods within a month is simply unacceptable!!!
You should do the right thing……resign.
Its easy to say anything is impossible.
What is interesting to ask is :
1. symphatisers would say its the global warming. But lets be logical here. The rain was only a few hours of normal or normal heavy rain.
Why last time, when such rain occur, there is no such severe problem?
Is it once every 50 years? I dunno leh.
a few hours of rain is a storm that caused flooding and he cannot solve?
then we should pay those ministers from Taiwan and hk, Japan since they fought against days of rain and earth quake with lesser pay than him.
“flood was caused by an intense storm,”
Yeah, did you know that water is wet and that fire burns?
Next time round we can point the finger at the Artic melting and causing Singapore to sink few centimetres below and no longer able to cope with the sudden rain and flood.
This JOKER of a MILLISTER went AWOL for a month to “study and learn” about floods, at the expense of Sinkaporeans (1 month’s pay) ONLY to return to tell Sinkaporeans that:
Storms = Rain = Flood?
Even a monkey will learn more in a month than this JOKER of a MILLISTER!
God Bless Sinkapore, AMEN or should I say RIP?
LOL……..isn’t it laughable when you expect a PAP minister to find an excuse to cover up their mistakes and even more laughable when you hear the sort of excuses they come up with. It’s a disgrace, honestly, a disgrace. Man, just looking how desperate Yaacob is trying to find excuses is the joke of the decade.
The honorable thing that a RESPONSIBLE MINISTER can and would do is apologize for the ”oversight” or perceived ”ineptitude” or even explain rather than hide in his/her ivory tower and have the media connive with him and shift blame and continually lie.
Shameless is too mild a word to describe his stance. A real snake in the grass.
PS – It was an act of Nature – sadly, PAP arrogant, boastful and condescending attitude; hence the wrath of the public at the slightest pratfall.
I ask my 90 years old grandmother what causes flood. Her answer: Tua hor (heavy rain) tio yim chwee (causes flood). Even my grandma can replace yakult without the million dollars salary. Sorry Yakult we dun need you.
THURSDAY’S deluge which submerged parts of Bukit Timah was a ‘freak’ event that occurs once in 50 years, Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Yaacob Ibrahim said yesterday.
http://www.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne%2BNews/Singapore/Story/A1Story20091123-181624.html
Maybe his next excuse will be since only 66.6% voted for them, therefore they can only keep 66.6% of Singapore flood free.
“flood was caused by an intense storm,”- Yaccoob
With that no brainer statement, Yaccoob is now officially in the same legendary clown league as WKS – “Mas selamat is either in Singapore or not, but the plausibility of the latter is greater”.
My condolences to the Wendy’s Restaurant.
I heard that PAP tell shopping mall management to build flood door to prevent water and customer going in. Genius!!! LOL
Seriously, how did they get into Ive League?
Aiyo, PAP your standard is falling liao
During Lee 1, back in those days everything is possible
PAP is all about the can-do spirit, they react immediately
I don’t remmember back then, they said impossible to keep Singapore flood free. Most of the MPs today are University Graduates
I ask old folks, during slums and tin houses, if I can recall, some of our MPs had a taxi driver, hair stylish, office clerk…can they get the job done, without lame excuses.
Lee 2, “Singapore River is Shanghai Bund” ???
Have you been to Shanghai??? you will know what is a big river and what is a water canal. Please compare a chicken and a Eagle, we should stop saying this, stop marketing this gimmick, if Indonesian or Malaysian noticed the different in size, Singaporean embarrassing liao.
All a sudden, there is so many Terrorist in Asia ???
That dude that love to kiss the keris enjoying waving of the keris, UNMO MCA had always been a strong critics of USA & Isreal.
Guess what, now they are smiling with the USA FBI against terrorist
A few months back UNMO youth leader was protest USA, there were burning of USA flags, stompin’ the stars & stripes shock & awe arrogant americans. Well, why so many arrest recently??? How Strange?
Maybe they had forgotten 1)American Public sentiment 2)Democrats
1)Democrats will not throw good money after bad, don’t expect this terms made by Bush “War on terrorist” this sentence is banned
2)Most american I know, believe the war on Afghan and Iraq is all about Oil Money, has nothing to do with terrorist. They want Democrats to stop wasting money on “fake terrorist” and focus on Iranian Nukes, dirty bombs, that is the real threat america
Malaysia can dream on…funding will not come (USA is bankrupt)
Obama and Hillary are smarter than Bush. They are copying China style of (Investment Infarstructure & Business Prosperity) Hillary had drop her human rights for jobs & budget deficits. Just see how they copy China wining forumal on Africa. They are doing it in Cambodia, Pakistan with many goodies without domestic interference.
On the other hand China is becoming like the old USA, supporting the Thais yellow shirt. I think China might become they next big busybody, the world police man supporting New Saddam Hussien, New Shah Monarchy, and New Yellow shirts, she going to had her hands burn. Maybe they are too successful, China head is swelling, the next arrogant country we love to hate
Last year, MOM lazy to do their homework, say “it was a freak accident”
This Year June, MOM AGAIN too lazy do their homework, say “long kang” was clogged by debris.
This month, same year, MOM say “long kang” design no good.
DON’T KNOW SAY DON’T LAH, DON’T GO AND “GAE KIANG” say you know the problem. Want to pretend pretend, laze around and shake leg and make millions of dollars.
“GO AND FLY KITE”
Dear “you know who you are”
If you are willing to HUMBLE yourself and learn and be paid like a $1/year CEO who offer refunds and free brackets maybe you still got some hope.
The truth will never be spoken, as the homework was not done since they have gotten their position without any efforts at the ballot.
Did Yaacob walk into his job during Election 2006 ?
Clearly, the two members of parliament from the Alternative Political Parties have been sleeping too.
If only they will google for information pertaining to the days that the flood occurred, it will be clear that the low tide that co-incided with the heavy storm should not have caused the massive flooding.
The flooding could not have been due to choked drains, as the PUB learnt their lesson after the first flooding at Orchard Road in 50 years !!
With the low tide that existed and the choked drain taken care of – the only plausible cause will be the existing undersized drainage system that could not support a changed environment.
Over the last ten years, Singapore population had ballooned by an extra ONE Million, while more buildings are built and more surface areas are tiled or concreted, the heavy rain that poured tons of water could not be absorbed into the ground.
All the rain water had to flow onto the concrete or tiled surface that flow onto the roads in huge volumes and then into existing drainage system that featured small culverts leading to bigger drains, into storm drains then into canals.
With all the new building project completed, were there any major works to the drainage system in Singapore for the last 30 years – let alone within the last 10 years ?
Driving around in Singapore on an extensive basis daily, we will encounter publc works on the road related to electricity, water and sewer lines or even road resurfacing – but we are never inconvenienced for drainage works.
Looking at the development along Orchard Road, with the addition of three new buildings, it had added more concrete and tiled surface and reduced the natural earth surface to absorb the rain water.
The same storm drain or canal had been build since the 1970s, and a pedestrian mall was built over the storm drain in the early 1980s, and stretched from the Ion Mall all the way to Center Point.
This was never widened nor deepened, even as Ngee Ann City was added, and followed by the Paragon, and also some newer mega project up at Tanglin from where the canal begins.
Clearly, the Minister is simply obfuscating the real issues with his amateurish reply.
Singapore is highly urbanized city with huge investment in drainage system to resolve flooding problem. But now it seem that we are becoming more like the third world countries! How can this be possible when our government is paid 5 times more than their counterpart in the first world countries? The OSTRICH approach seems to be taking root in PAP government and they think that by denying the existence of the problem, the problem will just go away e.g. exorbitant property price, overcrowding in public transport, flooding, etc! Our PM needs to wake up to lead his team properly !
I agree with the poser that it is the people fault as we vote for the party to be the government. If not for the fact that most of the opposite are either in ISA, bankruptcy or exile.
We lose our democratic status as a nation when the voting have serial number to track back to the voters. Shouldn’t voting be in secret and without fear. Even the president is not voted in by the people but base only on the choice of one person which control the whole of Singapore.
Singapore should now be officially call Singapore Private Limited own by one private entity, success measured by GDP. We are all just slaves in the sweat shop to pay for the the million dollars directors control the company.
You have got to be kidding me.
If something like this were to happen in any other country — whether first world, second world or third world — the minister in charge would have been asked to apologize and would have offered to resign without being asked.
But apparent not in Singapore.
Where is the accountability?
We pay this idiot millions and millions, and he cannot even apologize for repeated floods in a central business district?
Time to vote PAP out before Singapore degenerate from FOURTH WORLD into FIFTH WORLD.
It is not flood free per say, there are so many places being flooded and this has never happened in the last 10 years. And the new Mickey Mouse barrage is not working effectively.
All he can say is that he emphatised with those affected.
Even if these businesses and home owners decide to take a class action suit it will be a foregone conclusion.
Meanwhile brace themselves for sky-rocketing insurance premiums with exclusion clauses.
I think the massive circle line construction all over singapore is the cause for the flood to take place. tHEY dig every corner of singpore and now they do not know where the water coming from this is what in hokkien they say SI BEH KIANG , haha even natural disaster is teaching the government some lessons.
i hope there will be a sudden heavy downpour during NDP, then no more excuses …
Not asking to be flood free. Juz asking NOT for four floods in 6 weeks.
And for Liat towers NOT to be flooded twice in four weeks.
Is this too much.
And is the water level in Barrage “optimal” for the usual June/July (ie dry)? And not for the unseasonally heavy rains. This could explain the four “once in life time” floods.
Maybe a bigger margin of safety is needed.
“PUB has completed the investigation of the flood incident at Orchard Road. The investigation found that the flood was caused by an intense storm,” he was quoted as saying in the Straits Times.
Hey – tell me something that I don’t already know. Of course floods are caused by intense storms!! What else?? Snow?? High tides??
Stupid Sinkies! It’s your fault for plugging the drains! PAPaya not responsible for cleaning the drains lah, only GDP and lining our pockets with your money lah. Silly sinkies!
“Yaacob Ibrahim: “Impossible” to keep Singapore completely flood-free”
Given sg puny size & the blessing of no natural disasters, he has the cheek to make that statement?!
If sporeans are dumb enough to accept it, one day we may hear this:
“Anti-Corruption Agencies: “Impossible” to keep Singapore politicians completely Corruption-free”
can he be paid lesser, as in much lesser
as he is being paid millions to learn.
if he can be paid millions to learn,
give other Singaporean to learn as well.
give everyone a chance to count million of SGD.
i believe many Singaporean never in their life counted millions of SGD.
He has been learning for so long in that position.
time to move on.
If you ask me as to real reason benhind the more frequent floods compared to the last 5 years, i think is because of all the underground construction works going on (mainly related to circle line project).
With all the underdround works, you don’t see any flooding in the circle line stations, do you?
One possible explaination is because they waterproof these underground works so well, the excess rain water has no place to drain off, less areas for them to seep underground. The drainage is impeded. Therefore rain water has higher possibility of accumulating, resulting in flash floods. This just might be more possibility.
now that Yaacoob says flood prevention is not PUB’s sole responsibility – condo management, shopping centres taken to task if they want their premises flood-free. mas selamat escaped and the whole army police couldn’t catch him!
old man talk about too many banks must consolidate – next few days DBS ATM/online crashed 7 hours. merlion two holes by lightning, flyer stuck 6 hours, now lightning strike aircon cable – lightning rod don’t know why not working. who dares to sit anymore – charred bodies next! floods – 3 x in one month. mrt depot security breached, political film banned, book author arrested for criminal defamation. former ISD detainee blocked from giving talk. minister affected by flood – if stamford canal is the cause then why telok kurau also affected? chee court case brought up now.
Am i missing some message from the Divine upstairs?
What fucking excuse after excuse !
Just look at the fast pace of development along Orchard Road and surrounding areas and the amount of development charges the govt collected from all these developments. And yet they didn’t use any of the development charges to upgrade Stamford Canal and now only they realised that the Stamford Canal can’t take it any longer.
You know what they did to all these development charges. The best part to have occured is the prioirity that our PAP leaders have to be paid adequately or otherwise they will be corrupt.
Nevermind Singapore cannot be 100% flood-free. What is more important is that our leaders cannot afford to be doing it for free !
So much for the intense storm. Correct me if I am wrong, but I rem reading on CNA that they put the blame too on Typhoon Conson, which has just landed on Vietnam.
Geez… any student with a deeper knowledge on meteorology will say that the excuse is full of holes… that it leaks water..
Typhoon in Vietnam / Phil = more rain in Singapore?
Previous typhoons that have gone by didnt result in floods. It was not even Typhoon Katrina for goodness sake and we are talking of typhoon in Hainoi! (approx 3 hr flight)
Completely sucks
So what is going to happen during the year end monsoon season? Keep a canoe at home, life jackets etc. His reasoning for the floods is just like saying a rapist has sexual urges, so just let him continue raping.
Perhaps Yaacob did not heard of this word : ” Nothing is Impossible in this world “??, I think a primary school kid have already hear of this word many times.
To Mr Yaacob Ibrahim, nothing is 100% controllable just like the ‘no-smoking’ ruling at coffeshop. One half, u hv the ‘no smoking’ sign
and the other half just at arms length, u hv many smokers puffing away at next table. There are even some smokers who just step out of the ‘no smoking’ marked line & light-up, it’s really a joke this ‘no smoking’ law & each time such incident happen,I visualise smokers
blowing their smoke at Mr Yaacob Ibrahim’s face & he can’t do anything about it.
haha , now they blame typhoon “conson” !!! very very funny and thick skin , what can i say ? where they got their cert ? zembabwe ? when things gose wrong , they try to blame almost everything but themselves . their excuses are so damn funny even 5 years old kid won’t buy their story !
lightning strike merlion’s head last year , 4 flooded in 2 months time and lightning strike again yesterday , this time is singapore flyer . our bad luck is coming ?
orchard road plant tree not building. fuck lky.
after the next election who will be the environment minister?
still him or another person. i think most likely still him as no other minister dare to take up the job.
if the prime minister appoint me as the new environment minister i will not dare to take up the job even if the pay is million.
as i feel the flood thing not easy to solve.
so if this thing if even elite cannot solve so have to take pay cut.
flood was caused by an intense storm,”- Yaccoob
There is intense…intenser…intenserest…[bad english copied from LSS]…so if storm is more intenserest…does that mean most of singapore will be a metre or so under water…how Yacoob…how?
Only when that happens…you start to work on keeping your millions of dollars pay.
Nuts! A monkey paid peanuts can do a better job then you.
Xianz : (
While PUB has cleared the drains of debris, they have totally forgotten about the MIWs which are so full of foul rubbish.
Wah lao!!A small island also cannot manage the water system properly!!Shameful lah!!
1) Blockade at culvert – blame contractor
2) Intense storm – blame the heavens
3) Typhoon Conson – blame the heavens even tho no flood in Eastern M’sia
What excuse next? Singaporean spit into drain at same time? Phuii!
Maybe Minister Yaacob’s office could be relocated to Wendy’s Restaurant at Wheelock Place? He can also take up residence there – am sure the rental there is going cheap.
Don expect too much from Yakult, now u know why the malays are a minority, MAT BODOH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i hope it will rain everyday…
the more the merrier..
http://app2.nea.gov.sg/satimage_animation.aspx
on this govt website with satellite images, i can’t really see how this typhoon which seems rather far from singapore (yes, east malaysia is nearer) should take all the blame.
anyone can explain, since yakult is not very good at explanations? or we need to spend more money hire someone who can explain?
no doubt gov has much faults. but does bolding 2 sentences really help? i only see bad stuff typed down, feels biased.
longer article.. http://wildsingaporenews.blogspot.com/2010/07/parliament-discusses-flooding-in.html
stormlab:
July 20, 2010 at 8:37 am
“Anti-Corruption Agencies: “Impossible” to keep Singapore politicians completely Corruption-free”
It already exists in SIN: in the form of overpaid ministers, legalised corruption. When a govt has to pay its ministers millions to stay off corruption shows that the ministers are corruptible.
This Yaacob need to be sacked !
The flood is happening too frequently !!!!
Impossible to keep singapore flood-free? Must at least try lah!! Otherwise it would be impossible for the PAP to pay him his million-dollar salary.
I remember watching him on TV saying “this will not happen under my watch”. Quite boastful he was then.
“PUB has completed the investigation of the flood incident at Orchard Road. The investigation found that the flood was caused by an intense storm,”
CAUSED BY INTENSE STORM ?????????? NOT DUE TO CHOKE ???????????
WHO IS LYING THEN ????????????? WHO WAS FAST TO ANSWER THE MEDIA THAT A CHOKE DRAINAGE CAUSED THE FLOODING on 16 JUNE ????????????????????????????????????????????????????
HAPPENED ONCE IN 50 YEARS ??????????????????????????????????????
CANNOT BE COMPLETELY FLOOD-FREE ??????????????????
IF ‘YOU’ or your family STUCK in the midst of the floods & your personal properties AFFECTED,
WOULD YOU SAY THE SAME THING, SIR ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
TSK TSK TSK…
God is angry too! Even sent a lighting to hit the Wheel, Please be responsible if there’s really a serious SYSTEM FAILURE or DUE to too much diggings in SG land ?????????
Anyone dares take the Ferry Wheel during a rainy day ????
Anyone dare swims at the skypark of MBS ????????
SG feng shui is changing…..in my personal opinion.
we need to bring in 100,000 foreign workers , it can’t be help ! according to our PM .
yakult wil still enjoy his big fat pay even orchard road flood everyday , he atill be our minister for the next 10 years due to walk-over . even if the ppl vote him out , pm will asign him to join GLC , he still able to enjoy his fat pay .
it cannot be help ! the more yakult explain , the more hwe get angry , what to do ? let’s move on !
‘IMPOOSIBLE TO KEEP SINGAPORE FLOOD FREE’- YAKULT IBRAHIM.
look at how they think and say the same things.
SLIGHTY ALTERED: IMPSSIBLE TO KEEP SINGAPORE FOREIGN WORKERS(FLOOD) FREE.- LEE HSIEN LOONG.
IMPOSSIBLE TO KEEP MEDICAL COSTS FROM RISING.
IMPOSSIBLE TO KEEP HDB PRICES FROM GOING HEIGHER.
IMPOSSIBLE TO KEEP PRs FROM RENTING OUT HDB.
IMPOSSIBLE THIS AND IMPOSSIBLE THAT!
BUT THE CLASSIC IS,IMPOSSIBLE TO KEEP OUR LOWLY PAID MINISTERS’ SALARIES FROM RISING!
THE ULTIMATAUM FROM CITIZENS O THIS IMPOSSIBLE GOVT IS:-
IMPOSSIBLE TO KEEP OPPOSITION FROM WINNING THIS GE!
One frank question for Mr. Yacob.
If Oxley Rise had been flooded and LKY had to move about his house in a rubber dingy, would you say the same thing as you had said in the media?? “Oh it happens once in 50 years, It is because of the weather, the drains were choked, etc?” Mr. Yacob, you know what is doing to happen to you next? You will find yourself going down to the drains to clear the rubbish for the next 50 years.
Ministers and civil servants, regardless of whether they are paid millions or not, should own up and take responsibility for their actions when things go wrong. It is an act of cowardice to shift blame and deflect the responbilities. They all seem to behave as if they are Tai-Chi Grand Master Black Belt 10th Dan.
at first after investigation say its canal choke then now flood again say its actually intense heavy downpour… so whoever comes out with the reason is juz to anyhow give 1 reason to “Eng Siew ” us ,thinking not so “suay’ to flood again??
I think I can comes out with more and better POLITICALLY CORRECT reasons & excuses then that.
Its precisely we know cannot be flood FREE tats y we chose to Pay And Pay to want make it possible.
I think I need to reconsider to continue paying to some1 who cannot do their job…ESP when THESE PAYS are of MMILLION OVER DOLLARS and CAN EASE SO MUCH MORE SINGAPOREAN in distress.
If spending money to improve the infracture to prevent flood is not worth it , then spending millons of dollars for Youth olympic is better?
Isn’t it cheaper now to solve the flooding problems while its still containable …OR R U Juz waiting to be voted out so can throw the prob for whoevever next Opp party that comes in power?
KNN
Hey Look Guys, the Yellow river regularly bursts it banks and the floods there are torrential. i dont see the citizens blaming their government? How can you stop the rain? Just like how can you stop the policies that will be implemented no matter how many million posts happen here? Get real !
See lah! 66% vote for thunder party kenna intense storms and frequent flooding.
I passed by Thomson Road, a tree just fell and dropped on a car killing the driver.
It seems like many fallen trees in Singapore these days, what is the PAP doing?
I passed by Thomson Road, a tree just fell and hit a car killing the driver.
It seems like many fallen trees in Singapore these days, what is the PAP doing?
The best is yet to be…..more rains and mor floods coming soon…
Lessons here :-
Never park your car in the basement.
Never buy or rent a property next to a canal or even a longkang.
From now on, stay alert whenever there is heavy rain….you’ll never know…with all the underground diggings and blockages, the excessive water will flow elsewhere…maybe some day half of Singapore will be unerwater.
If any of the old man’s properties are affected, mr. yakult will really eat shit from him. Meantime, we have to eat our own losses.
The shop keepers should collectively sue the building management and all affected building management sue the ministry.
when lesser mortals can’t do shit to PAP maybe rich folks can do something…
U know that ark on top of the “tomb-stone/head-stone”…yah rite that one near the Marina Bay or whatever…
That is one sore ass lightning attractor if i ever saw one…wunder if there will be enough lightning arrestors or grounding and cover to prevent any sky-larking tourists or folks doing walk-about up there one day from being burned to a crisp or boiled like lard onto the surface to become another “permanent part” of the attraction up there…
See…i no need millions or hundreds of thousands of dollars to take the necessary common sense and rational pre-emptive measures against “bad-ass” confirmed can forsee scenarios.
Nuts lah MIW….more like Men In Wasting then Men In White.
SucccckkkkkkKKKKKKksSSSSssss.
No, Minister, I expect completely flood free bcos the storms we had were rather minor and shortlived, nothing as ravaging and major as the ones that swept across the other countries in Asia.
No, Minister, it is your job to ensure we have a high flood-free standard befitting of a first world country. Please do not accept the current standard as can-do when it cant even prevent flood for minor shortlived storm and when not less but more areas have become flood prone.
Yes, Minister, the “impossible to be completely flood-free” mindset must go or we will never see any real improvement. Do let us know what are your floor-free goal setting standards?
Can’t do good job but can receive world’s highest pay cheque.
Can’t even keep such a small area about a few football size’s area from flood free.
Only know how to laugh at other third world countries whenever something wrong happen in those countries.
Shame endless.
Dear Mr Jaccob….no country or goverment can promise a flood free country..so let’s just stop using that line. Singaporeans are shocked and puzzled by the recent spat and intensity of flooding…that is our concern…your office spent millions to upgrade ( maybe downgrade ) our drainage system n yet we are now experiencing intense flood in places that would normally not have happened. More importantly the frequency of these flood. You once told us it happens once every 50 years..so in the month of july, we would have experience 150 yrs of flooding.
Pay and Pay but many discussions, no solutions!
Yaacob’s “flood was caused by an intense storm” beats Wong Can Sing’s “Singapore is a small country. It has a long coastline, it is porous, and it is easy for people and goods to be brought in or even leave Singapore…”
Falling trees are the result of flooding, over soaked ground, that eased the roots beyond its ability to hold ground. The tree tops are always heavy, and will fall due its own unbalanced top. Never before has Singapore seen so many trees falling and killing innocent citizenry. We must not wait for trees to be falling on luxury houses in Bukit Timah, Goodman Road, killing a few rich people, etc to trigger actions. Who should quickly check on the trees in those flooded areas, and confirm that these trees are still firmly rooted? Is it safe to walk on the tree lined roads in these areas? Who pays for the lives lost, damaged cars, damaged assets in houses, damaged belongings…lost time….would widening and deepening of Stamford Canal ease the flood? Can this ease the flow of rain water into the sea….during heavy rain period in November and December?
Yakult…count your blessing u’re not minister in current flooded China – try giving your “excuse” to the PRCs
We are not asking for flood-free spore.All we want is a once-in-50-year place like you said.
Why is the whole cabinet composed of idiots.
How badly we missed GKS—the guy that solved ALL our problems.
“PUB has completed the investigation of the flood incident at Orchard Road. The investigation found that the flood was caused by an intense storm,” he was quoted as saying in the Straits Times.
Did our Yakult minister just say that the flood was caused by water???!!!
SC:
July 19, 2010 at 11:07 pm
Yaacob now admits that Stamford Canal is inadequate.. so were Singaporeans being lied to after the first flood?
this is the new damage control strategy.
the original attribution of fault to the canal and debris in effect points fingers to the canal-in-charge and the debris-in-charge which is ENV. the experience that the people are willing to sacrifice a cabinet minister like George Yeo in the last elections means that not just Mah Bow Tan, Wong Kan Seng, but now Yaacob are all under threat of dethronement.
this new strategy effectively puts the blame on “God” in the form of intense storms – that way, you divert blame from expensive ministers.
the interesting thing is, the establishment is losing finesse in politics – it did not immediately jump on that as an excuse from the start. this oversight was underestimating the probability that God can spit furiously upon the nation 4 times in 50 years.
well God did. time to blame him instead of ministers.
“Yaacob Ibrahim: “Impossible” to keep Singapore completely flood-free”
If nothing else, Sunkenporeans are realistic. We will never ask for the moon.
Swiss standard? Sinkingpore?
Would you settle for Venice standard?
PAP is perfect and is not responsible for mistakes but take only credit. They are perfect all these decades:
Mas Selamat escape blamed it on lapses
Losses at GIC/Temasek/Suzhou/Telecoms in Thailand and Indonesian investment in portolio, blamed on market and Singaporeans being ignorant.
Vandalism in SMRT, blamed on SMRT and Singaporeans have duty to report.
stressful education, blamed on kiasu parents;
3 floodings in the heart of the city, blamed it on freak weather and PUB
Influx of massive influx of foreigners, blamed it as a necessity for the good of the country
high property prices, blamed on influx of foreigners and not the HDB and Voters in HDB happy.
The list goes on and on
In the end, the GRC system has been designed for them to win whatever come what may.Sure win. Nowhere, can the opposition creditable or not, make headway as the Singaporeans fully endorsed them even now and quietly.
Just my observation and i dont really care.
Impossible? If malaysia boleh, why singapore tak boleh? He is a useless dummy just put there to calm the malay? What type of doctor degree he is holding? Actually he looks like a fake malay.
telling the citizens that it is “impossible to keep Singapore flood free” is as good as telling us “impossible to keep Singapore crime free”.
but which politician in his right mind will make such a comment?
both cases are the truth, we don’t demand zero of such incidents. what we want to know, is what are they doing about it? what’s the fix? are we paying them to tell us what we’ve already known?
“PUB has completed the investigation of the flood incident at Orchard Road. The investigation found that the flood was caused by an intense storm,”
gee thanks ! yes we know ! so what are you gonna do to solve it ?????
it’s obvious that they don’t care.
Dear Minister Y
You should devote time and effort to solve the flooding problem rather than waste time on small issues.
Payback time – like catching rats in Kg Java and checking on my crab business. Your friends still stay there ? I am now residing in JB.
@ Neverdiebefore,
Why compare Yellow river to Orchard River??
Yellow river existed since time memorial, whereas Orchard River was created
only 2 months ago!!
You mean if we can’t stop the rain, we have to bear with the inconveniencies of the frequent floodings??
We are in an island of slightly more than 700 km2, we have the best brains
(they claim) and the world’s highest paid Ministers, and we are in the First world, first tier league, and we are no.1 in 9 out of 10 in the things we do.
So if we do not blame the authorities, then we blame who?? Those who littered and choked the drains? the intense rainstorms?
Come on, get real! They asked for world class pay, we as citizens, demand world class performances and results!!
No more no less!!
NeverDieBefore!:
July 20, 2010 at 4:18 pm
Hey Look Guys, the Yellow river regularly bursts it banks and the floods there are torrential. i dont see the citizens blaming their government? How can you stop the rain? Just like how can you stop the policies that will be implemented no matter how many million posts happen here? Get real !
THEN? WHAT? why compare our flood with yellow river? must as well compare how much our useless bunch of ministers are getting for themselves and how much is the chinese premier is getting, right?
you want to be paid so much millions at the expense of the taxpayers and yet unable to find a solution to the problem.
Pay me 1 million and I can easily give you solutions not only to solve this flooding thingy but most of the other problems too . . . you want to know? I won’t tell you less they stole my idea and start claiming credits for themselves, useless bums!
I think the cause of marina barage did not function properly is because to many layang2 drops there and cause the choke at the gate.
hehehe
if an old man can rise from his grave to make sure spore is ok, how is it impossible to keep spore flood-free? discuss.
PAP Environment and Water Resources, Minister Dr Yaacob Ibrahim should have declared in Parliament, ” Let there be no rain or storm and there will be no flood!”.
Thereafter, he will continue to get his million dollars salary and further 8.8% increment this year.
Singapore MP get millions of dollar as pay cheque. And this is the best excuse they can give.
Come on la. Hire a China worker to take over his place la. Cheaper.
$900 per month can do his job already.
Plus the Excuse is much better.
Alamak! He is just ECHOING his Limping Hello Leh boss PM lah!
Dr Yaacob recently said that flood-prone areas have been reduced from 3,178ha in 1970 to 66ha today. Can we Singaporean demand to know where are those 66ha, and does it include Orchard road??
Remember what Yacob said – Flood occur once onli 5o years but now it look once every 5 days, 5 months? For goodness sake, please please dun try to cover your back-side lah!
Pardon me, i mean every 5 wks, 5 days too short and 5 mths too long n 50 years (talk cxxx)!
GRC SYSTEM WAS DESIGNED TO ENSURE FLOOD FREE OPPOSITION (TAMED AND INEFFECTIVE FLOODING) GOING INTO PARLIAMENT, WE AS SINGAPOREANS CAN THEREFORE EXPECT THEM TO ENGINEER A VERY MINIMUM SAFE SYSTEM TO ENSURE IT IS FLOOD FREE?
MM Lee says no amount of engineering can prevent flooding.
Mr Lee added: “Some things are beyond (that); it’s an act of God unless you want to lose half the roads and have canals.”
–
I hope some other professionals can give a view on MM’s 2 predictions.
1) No engineering can prevent flood in Singapore.
2) No floods if lose half the roads and build canals.
Paying the ministers million dollar salaries could not solve the flooding problem. Obviously the solution is to further increase the minister’s salary so that the problem could be solved.
Wasnt there a senior civil servant who went to France on a cooking eating holiday and boasted all about it in the straits times? Isnt he now promoted to the Minister of Climate Change in the Prime Minister’s Office? Yong, soon it is time to answer …
For years, you have kept the floodgates closed. The civil service was an honorable one, patterned after the respectable English system that you so admired. But you dismantled the dependable steel hinges and latches of honor and dedication to and replaced them with expensive shinning new ones made of brass and corrodible plated metals.
The floodgates have long been washed away and the floodwaters are the flawed decisions of yesterday …
These officials are the ones with the mandate and the power to solve the flooding problems in Singapore but instead of doing that they are more interested in covering their asses. Blame the debris, blame the heavy rains, blame the people for unrealistic expectations, etc.
Ministers, is it unrealistic for a Singaporean to expect that someone who is paid well to do the job just do the job? If there is problems with the drainage, just fix it before assigning the blame to someone else or giving up before the root cause is found. It is getting very ridiculous.
By the way, I think the relevant authorities should also look into the integrity of buildings and structures as a result of recent floods. Trees can collapse so can buildings.
NeverDieBefore :- `Yellow river regularly bursts its banks and the floods there are torrential. i dont see the citizens blaming their govt? How can you stop the rain?’..`Get real!’
I am real -at least the Chinese govt does not pay themselves millions. get real – why floods so many times a month now and not previously? don’t blame the rain when neighbouring cities were not flooded. it is not the gods but human human human not doing their jobs properly. stop the silly excuses! how come now then discover stamford canal design flawed?
A nice thought: Istana gets flooded and minister Yakult
tells lky “Freak floods are a 50 year once occurrence.
It’s impossible to keep Singapore completely flood free!”
I have one question for the Yakult man –
Even if it is impossible to keep Sinkingpore
completely flood-free, must you keep
Sunkenpore permanently water-logged???!!!
Funny how suddenly all the ministers become experts , and tell us what went on and how it happened . They don’t want to admit that overbuilding , over concreting , over tarmacing , are the real culprit . It you understand nature , then soil absorbs rain ( up to a certain extent) filters it , and gives the water out at a reduced rate at sources , so less problem of flooding . But with current developments , all water runs off quickly from tarmac , concreted areas and roofs , and drains reservoirs etc are unable to buffer the input and flooding occurs.This was far from the 100 year rain possibilities , so what will happen when it does ?
Singapore has to stop or reduce development , stop concreting and tarmac , otherwise it won’t only be floods , but very high temperatures as the infrastructures absorb heat . This will also have effects on the climate.
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