Chong Zi Liang Straits Times 10 Jul 10;
AT LEAST five Members of Parliament will ask the Minister for the Environment and Water Resources to explain last month's floods, when Parliament next sits on July 19.
Issues such as the capacity and maintenance of Singapore's drainage system, and financial aid for under-insured businesses are the focus of their questions.
Ms Lee Bee Wah, an engineer by profession, believes the floods were due to poor design or poor maintenance of the drainage system, or a combination of both. The vice-chairman of the Government Parliamentary Committee for National Development and Environment, her questions will focus on these two issues.
Nominated MP Teo Siong Seng wants to know if the Government and grassroots groups will provide financial aid to businesses hit by the floods, but whose insurance payouts are less than their costs of recovery.
Singapore was hit by two rounds of flooding last month. The first, on June 16, inundated parts of the nation's premier shopping belt at Orchard Road, causing damage to designer stores. The second round of floods occurred a week later in areas such as Tai Seng, East Coast and Upper Thomson.
Tampines GRC MP Irene Ng has filed questions on whether global warming was the cause of unusually heavy rainfall on the days of the floods, and efforts to raise awareness of its effects.
Marine Parade GRC MP Fatimah Lateef's ward was affected by the second round of floods.
She will ask Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Yaacob Ibrahim what can be done to prevent flooding, not just in Orchard Road but in other parts of Singapore as well.
Dr Fatimah will also meet the PUB next week to discuss flood alleviation in her ward.
West Coast GRC MP Ho Geok Choo's ward was not affected in this round of flooding. But it was in 2003, when a three-year-old boy drowned in a flooded drain.
She has filed a question on the programmes in place to deal with future floods.
Some MPs, like Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC MP Hri Kumar Nair, have written directly to the PUB for explanations and action to address local flooding in their constituencies.
The PUB has promised to widen drains in the Sin Ming area, which he represents.
'I will communicate the news directly to the residents through the Thomson newsletter,' he said.
Besides floods, another issue that MPs plan to highlight is the safe transport of foreign workers.
Jurong GRC MP Halimah Yacob hopes measures such as higher side railings and canopies, previously slated to be in place by September 2012, 'can be enforced by the end of this year'.
Three foreign workers died when the lorry they were riding in skidded and crashed off the Pan-Island Expressway on June 22.
