Unrealistic

Remember all the pictures I put up on floods in Singapore? Well, it’s okay if you don’t because I will be putting up more of them in the future. In fact Singaporeans can expect more floods in the near future.

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong practically admit this when he says that it would be unrealistic for Singapore to be flood free. Instead, the PM ask Singaporeans to “manage their expectations” that a repeat of the recent floods would not happen again because it would be too costly to build the facilities to prevent the floods.

Frankly, I disagree with the PM. Not because it is unrealistic for Singapore to be flood free (I mean if it rain, there will be a chance of flood), but because he did not give a good reason why it is suddenly unrealistic for Singapore to be flood free.

Singapore has been mostly free of floods for the past 10-20 years, but recently we had news of floods hitting Orchard Road, Thomson, Bukit Timah etc. Now the PM is basically saying there will be more floods in the future. Fair enough, but he must give a good reason because most Singaporeans will not accept cost as a reason.

In the recent flood that hit Orchard Road, the water was in the areas where from the new shopping malls like ION were on. I, like most Singaporeans, don’t think that is a coincidence. You can spend millions to build new shopping centers but can’t spend the money to prevent floods caused by these new buildings?

Sorry, but it is unrealistic to expect Singaporeans to accept that.