The AYE Closure

How do Singaporeans know that the raining season is upon us? In the past, we look at the sky to see if it's raining. Nowadays, that's not necessary because we can just look at the ground to see if it's flooded.

Yesterday, Singapore was faced with a torrential downpour that mostly hit western Singapore. As like the past few years, Singapore now faced the problem of flooding. However, the problem of flooding has now become worse than ever before because yesterday, a major expressway had to be closed due to severe flooding. The AYE (Ayer Rajah Expressway) has to be temporary closed due to the flood and this has gotten government ministers out to put out the fire of criticism.

As this falls under his ministry, the Minister for the Enviroment and Water Resources, Dr. Vivian Balakrishnan, has become the frontman of the government on the issue. He was quoted as saying that it's "not acceptable" for a major expressway to shut down due to flooding. He is right, it is not acceptable, but frankly he need to take some blame for the problem.

Now I heard all the talk of monsoon, once in 100 years rain, and all the other excuses, but what I personally found unacceptable was the simple fact that the flooding problem in Singapore has gotten worse and worse! The flooding problem we faced yesterday is not new. Remember the flooding of Orchard Road in 2010? That was bad but this is worse. Now instead of a shopping belt getting flooded, an expressway had to be closed due to flooding! Tell me if that's not an escalation of the problem? 

What is not acceptable here is the fact that 3 years after the Orchard Road floods, instead of solving the problem, the issue of flooding is now worse than ever! Maybe Dr. Balakrishnan can now spend less time talking about cleanliness of hawker centers and do something about a problem Singaporeans really care about, the issue of flooding.