Wider, deeper drains
05:55 AM Jul 24, 2010
SINGAPORE - To prevent potential floods in future, PUB will fast track drainage improvement works - widening and deepening drains and raising road levels - in five areas around Singapore.
The improvement works include the widening and deepening of roadside drains in Sin Ming, Marymount and Cambridge/Dorset area, raising of road levels at Hartley Grove and diverting water to Sungei Whampoa at Jalan Ma'mor and Jalan Bahagia. Roadside drains will also be improved at Tembeling Road and Duku Road.
Ninety PUB staff are on high alert in case floods strike again, the national water agency told MediaCorp, and 360 contractors, 15 tankers and 20 pumps have been kept on standby.
PUB has also alerted the building management of properties along Orchard Road such as Liat Towers, Lucky Plaza, Tong Building, Delfi Orchard, and residences such as Tessarina and Corona Ville on the weather forecast for Saturday and Sunday.
PUB added that it has met the management of six condominiums, seven commercial buildings and more than 80 affected residents to explain the flood situation and provide advice on what they can do to protect their premises.
In all, 940 sandbags have been provided to affected residents to protect their basement entrances and homes in the event that another flood event should occur.
Liat Towers at Orchard Road, which was severely hit by the flood, have more than 200 sandbags around the building.
Its building services executive Chik Hai Lam said it bought 220 sandbags and the PUB added another 60 to the lot on Thursday.
It also engaged a professional engineer to propose permanent solutions - like these flood barriers already installed at the Wisma Atria mall.
"Our sand bags will be here as long as the barriers are not up," said Mr Chik. "There will be the mountable, likely, glass panels which we can slot in or slide in to be implemented along the front."
Such permanent structures cost about half-a-million dollars, and need to be imported; so it may take about half a year before they can be installed.
Meantime, Liat Towers says it wants to set up raised kerbs or walls, at least two feet high, to prevent waters from flooding its basement shops.
Establishments might continue to fortify their property against floods, but Singaporeans can look forward to a weekend with less rainfall, said the National Environment Agency (NEA).
Typhoon "Chanthu" has dissipated after making landfall over southern China, NEA said, and is unlikely to have a major impact on Singapore this weekend.
But it's Meteorological Services Division says to still expect "short-duration showers with thunder over many areas in the morning and early afternoon.
The public is advised to obtain the latest weather reports, including heavy rain warnings, by tuning in to radio broadcasts, calling NEA's weather forecast hotline at 65427788, following @NEAsg on Twitter, accessing the mobile weather service, available free at Weather@SG (weather.nea.gov.sg), or visit the NEA website at www.nea.gov.sg. The public can also visit the PUB website at www.pub.gov.sg for the safety advisory for floods.
