Keeping businesses dry in Singapore

Business Times 2 Aug 10;

Which of the initiatives so far announced by the government, and by the private sector, are likely to be the most effective in mitigating future flooding? What more needs to be done?

Bijoy Mohan
President
GROHE, Asia Pacific

HAVING lived in India where floods occur frequently, I believe the Singapore government is acting wisely by not treating these as events beyond our control. The city must always be capable of tackling any such crises, and indeed the prompt response by the authorities and businesses is commendable. Already, three fundamental pillars exist - drainage (prevention), SMS alerts (preparation) and floodgates (management).

As execution is critical, the infrastructure to execute needs to be in place. For example they could ensure a pool of contractors are ready to be deployed to install the necessary structures. And of course simulation technology could be harnessed to run different scenarios using combinations of weather, tides, material availability, human factors and so on and formulate responses. Singapore is better placed than any other nation to implement this.

Lim Soon Hock
Managing Director
PLAN-B ICAG Pte Ltd

SINGAPORE is blessed not to have to experience natural disasters or calamities such as earthquakes, tsunamis, typhoons, hurricanes, droughts and famines. Save for occasional flash floods, Singaporeans have enjoyed a life of relative calm, stability and feast since the 1980s, a far cry from the 1950s to 1970s, when we used to have frequent floods in many areas in Singapore and occasional nation-wide water rationing. The angst and unhappiness of the public and businesses over the recent spate of three devastating floods in one month, are understandable. Singaporeans cannot accept that this is the Singapore they know.

To ensure that Singapore is kept as flood-free as is reasonably possible, all the initiatives that have been announced so far by the government and by the private sector are not only needed, but would have to work as integral components of a holistic plan. It means that PUB must fast-forward the implementation of the ongoing drainage improvement programme to alleviate flooding in flood-prone areas and carry out a systematic and thorough review of all major drainage systems and their design parameters, which I am heartened to note, is already in progress.

If it has not been done, the PUB should consider working with the Institute of High Performance Computing and tap on the expertise of independent professional bodies such as the Institution of Engineers Singapore and the universities to carry out simulations to test the drainage system and their design parameters. The plan by the PUB to increase the number of sensors to 150 next year to cover all major waterways, flood prone areas and hotspots to monitor water levels, should also be accelerated as much as possible.

Until there is better clarity and understanding of our flood preparedness, the private sector should not take chances for now. Businesses are better off taking immediate measures, as recommended by the authorities and professionals, to avoid a repeat of the recent havoc and damage to properties, for example, by installing flood barriers and road humps and subscribing to SMS alerts from the PUB when the water reaches threatening levels. The holistic plan to improve flood preparedness and to keep Singapore as flood-free as possible, needs to be water-tight.

Toby Koh
Group Managing Director
Ademco Security Group Pte Ltd

NEWS of the recent flooding incidents in Singapore certainly spread far and wide. I had friends and business associates from across the world sending e-mail teasing me about how ironic it was for a super-modern and methodically structured country like Singapore to suffer the wrath of nature.

Enhancement of the drainage system is a clear priority. Urban planning and building control authorities must now consider risk assessment as a planning element. I suggest an extensive study be conducted with various water flow scenarios, incorporating parameters of frequency, probability and likely impact. These should also include clearly marked out hazard areas to assist private property owners to determine the level of investment they may wish to undertake privately to mitigate such risks as part of their loss prevention initiatives.

The material damage was not significant as a whole and thankfully there was no loss of lives. However, the real damage was to the image of Singapore as a country. Let's start the improvement works now.

Leon Perera
Group Managing Director
Spire Research & Consulting Group

THE flooding episodes in the past six months have not only been among the most disruptive in recent memory but also the most striking, given the impact on the iconic Orchard Road shopping belt, not once but twice. Infrastructural and maintenance improvements by the PUB as well as sandbag distribution and SMS alerts will certainly help to ameliorate the problem in future.

However, the thrust of public communication about the flooding, having shifted from an emphasis on the rarity of major flood events (once in 50 years) to the presence of debris to the inevitability of flooding, may have raised more questions than provided answers. As confidence is as much a function of perceptions as facts on the ground, a public enquiry should be held to ascertain the causes and recommend a comprehensive solution, with full transparency of process and deliberations.

Francois Lancon
President
Avaya Asia Pacific

MANY of the initiatives proposed by the government and private sectors have merit, but they can only work as part of a fully coordinated emergency response communication system. Major disasters from 9/11 to Hurricane Katrina to the 2004 Tsunami to the Sichuan earthquake have demonstrated the need for clear disaster recovery planning and an agreed communication plan which can be activated instantly. While Singapore's recurrent flood problems may not be on the magnitude of those disasters, lessons learned can and should be incorporated into a single response plan.

While the focus of this plan may be on providing adequate warning to businesses and contingency measures for people and traffic, companies in the impacted area must also develop their own plans to reduce the disruptive impact to their businesses.

Maintaining communications is vital. Interested readers can check out a White Paper on ‘Maintaining Communications During Emergencies' written by consulting firm GreenSpring Partners, with some practical advice on what communication systems to put in place, on Avaya's response and recovery webpage, http://www.avaya.com/usa/solution/response-and-recovery.

Jerry Tan Soon Huat
Managing Director
Hu Lee Impex Pte Ltd

IN my opinion, there is no perfect system. Our government can only keep moving on to improve and improve our drainage system. But do remember, there is a limit as Singapore is a small place with limited land for expansion.

As for those complaints of flooding, I can only say, 'Typical Singaporeans, always wanting to complain'.

Dora Hoan
Group CEO
Best World International Ltd

THROUGHOUT the world, the phenomenon of increasing frequency and intensity of flooding has been witnessed even in countries like the US and the UK. We have seen situations of destructive flash flooding during heavy downpours and seen them increasing considerably through the years in many Asian cities. Of late, the flooding has been witnessed in Singapore. Indeed, our planners have taken proactive measures in the past that deserve appreciation and acknowledgement. However, what has worked in the past is no longer the issue. The main concern now is how to reduce the impact of flooding in the future. I suggest three steps.

First is precaution: this is where alerts and sensors would work to give the public necessary information to improve communication and evacuation procedures. For instance, flood barriers and road humps to prevent building basement flooding would have to be taken care of by private developers and contractors. At this point, private individuals would have to take the initiative themselves.

I have witnessed it happen among condominium residents in front of my home in Bukit Timah. When the heavy rains came in the recent past, their basement car parks would be flooded. Now, they have got smarter. When there is heavy rain, they quickly park their cars on the road outside. This is just an example to drive the point that alertness and vigilance is what we need to have as private citizens in the face of a calamities over which we have little or no control.

The next step is solution. The immediate concern now is how to reduce the impact of such floods in the future by really looking into our flood-prevention infrastructure. The worst that could happen to us is if we fail to channel substantial investments to upgrade sewers and other urban drainage systems to keep pace with changes in our accelerated city development. This will have to be the responsibility of city planners as well as private developers.

The third step is prevention. Flooding is a reality of our times and it is likely to escalate even in a city as modern as Singapore. This area is the responsibility of our national leadership to review our land use management and urban planning policies particularly within the context of recent and new planned city developments.

The experiences drawn from around the world point to a very crucial need for an integrated approach to managing flood risks which emphasise strong land-use policy enforcement, increased investment in flood defence infrastructure and a new mindset across all sectors that acknowledge not only our need for fast-paced growth but the importance of respecting the limitations of our environment.

Joshua Yim
CEO
ACHIEVE Group

WE have heard plenty of complaints about the recent floods, but on the positive side I've been very encouraged by quick action taken to mitigate the effects of future flooding. While the public authorities will necessarily have to lead the charge, for example, by improving the infrastructure in vulnerable areas, businesses have also acted quickly with proactive initiatives like the proposed SMS early warning system.

If you look at the big picture here, this could just be the start of global warming wreaking havoc on nature and the weather. As water levels rise, some cities like Venice find themselves slowly sinking. Some areas that are prone to hurricanes and cyclones such as New Orleans are devising ways to raise parts of the city. Similarly, I think Singapore should also harness technology to improve our infrastructure to reduce the incidents of flooding because it will pay off in the long run. If the recent heavy downpours are going to happen every June/July, the situation will only escalate in the years to come. We may want to consider creating the right infrastructure because such floods are a huge cost to businesses and will tarnish Singapore's image.

Early warning systems via SMS or traffic signs may help to alert motorists but my bigger concern is the residences and businesses in the affected areas, whose household appliances and sales inventory cannot be moved away as easily. The basement shops in Lucky Plaza, for instance, had it the worst. We need an engineering breakthrough to build an effective underground drainage system and I believe this can be achieved with time, creativity and imagination.

Tan Kok Leong
Principal
TKL Consulting

CLIMATE change is the root cause of the flooding problem in Singapore. Shifting rainfall patterns and heavy downpour of rain has resulted in floods in many areas, including Orchard Road. It is probably effective to set up an early warning system to reduce risk and minimise damage, provide emergency response plans to rescue people trapped in floods, review the enclosure concept of the Stamford canal's design and its capacity and relook the way we collect rainwater under heavy rainfall.

Andrea Ross
Managing Director (Singapore)
Robert Walters Singapore

CLEARLY, floods can be extremely destructive. However, there are measures to prevent and minimise damage to property due to flooding. One of the most effective measures includes forecasting and mapping. PUB's plans to increase the number of water level sensors (to 150 by 2011 from the current 32, with 58 of such sensors to be added by year-end) is an effective way to keep close tabs on river/canal conditions to predict when floods are going to occur. These predictions allow people in endangered locations to be evacuated before floodwaters rise too high, for example, inviting businesses along Orchard Road to participate in an SMS alert system to notify them of high water levels in the Stamford Canal.

Publicising data from water level sensors online will also help to keep the public informed about various road floodings and subsequently contribute towards reducing traffic flow in flooded locations. Besides putting up signboards warning motorists of flooded roads, this information could also be relayed to the public through radio stations, news channels, or on the LED signboards along various expressways.

Good engineering of dams, levees and buildings in flood-prone areas can greatly contribute towards mitigating the effects of flooding. Newspaper reports have highlighted the SMART Tunnel (Stormwater Management and Road Tunnel) in Kuala Lumpur that opened in May 2007 functions as an innovative solution to mitigate both traffic congestion and flooding. It is a submerged tunnel which can carry both vehicular traffic as well as storm runoff on a lower level. When regular drainage infrastructure is overwhelmed, vehicles are evacuated from the tunnel and the entire tube is used as a gigantic storm drain to prevent Kuala Lumpur from flooding. Besides implementing the drainage improvement programme to several major canals and drains, perhaps Singapore can consider similar measures to mitigate future floods.

David Leong
Managing Director
PeopleWorldwide Consulting Pte Ltd

WHILE Singapore suffers from heavy torrential rain this season, Hong Kong was hit by Typhoon Chanthu with fatalities and resulting in major flood situations in most parts of the territory. China, being a large continental country, also grapples with severe flooding caused by heavy rains in the north-eastern areas causing major infrastructure collapse including failure in power plants, as the worst flooding in more than a decade continued to besiege many areas of the country. In the Philippines, people were forcibly evacuated after torrential rains caused heavy flooding in the southern Philippines and villages in the town of Sultan Kudarat on southern Mindanao Island were under waist-deep waters. The flooding was classified as severity class 1 which means that the flood causes significant damage to properties and causes fatalities. The main cause for all these disasters is torrential rain and such natural flash flood situations and typhoons cannot be managed or prevented by any government but mitigating measures can be put in place to warn people so that damage can be minimised. Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States but the US was caught totally unprepared and was under siege by this natural disaster and worse, government response was slow.

Singapore's situation, in comparison to other flood disasters around the world, does look minuscule in terms of scale and size, but damage and suffering are still the same.

A slew of measures have been put in place to manage the flooding situation. The flooding happens as if Singapore was suddenly hit by a heart blockage. Heart blockage is a local blocking or narrowing in the arterial network of the body by accumulated deposits of plaque which is mostly bad cholesterol. These pipelines get blocked with the accumulation of bad cholesterol and in Singapore's flooding case, debris choked in the major arterial drains and canal catchment areas. The PUB is doing the equivalent of an angiography procedure to get clear images of all the major drains and canals and work on the expansion of capacity to cater to large volume flows. The procedure must also consider low-lying areas deemed at risk and install markers to monitor sudden surges of water. The government must contend with effective monitoring, warning and responding to the flood - the test for our government is in how we respond to the disaster and not why the disaster happened, which is mostly unpredictable. No amount of engineering ingenuity can stop natural disasters like this but engineering intervention is needed to prevent, mitigate and reduce damage and suffering. To be fair, our government has acted responsively, reliably and responsibly in these flood situations.

Jackie Cheng
CEO
Hisaka Holdings Ltd

WE are impressed at how quickly the government has offered its initiatives to mitigate future flooding. Alert systems to forewarn residents and businesses has been put in place, to limit the impact of future floods on people's lives and businesses. However, the best solutions to prevent such flash floods would be improving the drainage system to manage a higher capacity of rain water, and this is expected to take a while.

In the meantime, we can also do our part by ensuring that drains are not clogged with rubbish. Also, the setting up of a community alert for each affected area would help to fight future floods.

David Low
CEO
Futuristic Store Fixtures Pte Ltd

THE recent spate of flash floods has certainly created disruptions to the public and businesses, unheard of in the recent past. To eradicate flooding may not be impossible but it will be a long term investment time- and cost-wise. Studies should be underway to investigate real causes and explore long-term solutions to address root problems. In the interim period, initiatives put forth serve more as warnings than solutions. Ultimately, if flooding cannot be avoided, the impact it brings should be minimised at best.

Apart from publishing data from water level sensors online, we could tap into social networking platforms or the i-world to ensure the data gets disseminated nationwide at the earliest possible. New housing should perhaps come with floodgates as a compulsory building structure especially for flood-prone areas. Taking a leaf from Kuala Lumpur's SMART tunnel system, in addition to improving canal capacity and drainage infrastructure, we can explore dual usage of underground tunnels.