Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Orchard road...soaked up to knee level

The first news that surprised me today is the massive flash flood in Singapore Orchard road today that causes many stores to "go under" water literally. While flooding in Bukit Timah is often old news, seeing the prime district being submerged in water up to knee height watermark is another matter.

Accordingly to the news report, all the malls with basement stores such as Wheellock place & lucky plaza were not spared.

As per any unfortunate "incidents", forums are set abuzz with non constructive comments that sets finger pointing in one major direction and tongue wagging with all sort of remarks.

I have no idea if all the building construction around the area has direct cause and effect to today's headline, however would it be anyone guess that the blatant destruction of the nice pocket of orchard green park in exchange for the materialisation of the horrific orchard Ion has a definite role to play? I still reject that bulky ugly piece of architecture. Do we really need that mall, that house nothing but another repetition of luxury brands? Seriously....there is nothing appealing about that mall in term of looks and its functionality. They destroyed a perfectly nice spot and trade it off for commercial greed.

We all know what nature and greenery does apart from beautifying the area, it has a certain level of water catchment effect as the water seep into the soil. Not saying that this flood would have been eliminated but nothing would convince me that it wont have helped lessen the impact with all the layers and layers of absorbing soil now removed, but replaced with concrete.

Go on and build more condos and buildings along the orchard stretch. How appealing wont it be to see your million-dollars apartment go under water one day because the drainage system wasnt design or redesigned to consider the massive transformation in landscape.

A forward looking landscape transformation project while doing its consideration, really shouldnt continue to depend on past stats for the average highest downpour and fail to do a more realistic projection based on the unstable climate change, else, we will never catch up with the more agressive wreakage nature shall bring forth in the future.

Well. I just hope the torrential rain would take a break for the week I will be back.
Else it really wont be much fun at all to be stuck at home with no internet. Better bring my books along...

news source: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1063622/1/.html

2 comments:

complainking said...

GSS: Go soak and swim

Anonymous said...

Agree about the uselessness of the Ion, but the people at the top are very proud of it! It's one of the first things they mention to overseas Singaporeans when they are out about trying to convince them to return to Sg. Like we need to return to Singapore to buy luxury brands represented in every major city in the world!

I miss the old green patch as well. I liked how it would be filled with picnicking Filipino maids on Sundays. That gave it some character that's missing from much of Orchard Road...