http://www.todayonline.com/Voices/EDC100730-0000060/Sea-change-needed
Sea change needed
Saitama example could provide solution to flood woes
Letter from Tan Keng Tat
05:55 AM Jul 30, 2010
I REFER to the PUB's plans to "fast-track drainage improvement works - widening and deepening drains and raising road levels - in five areas around Singapore" to prevent potential floods in future ("Wider, deeper drains", July 24).
These plans are commendable but paradoxically, in the experience of Kasukabe City in the low-lying Saitama Prefecture, near Tokyo, only a holistic and audacious approach can stop flash floods in Singapore for good. Anything less will only postpone the inevitable.
Kasukabe City, which was hit by six major floods, solved its problem by constructing the world's largest underground water infrastructure, consisting of five giant, vertical intake silos, each 65 metres in depth. These giant intake silos are located near recalcitrant rivers, canals and waterways to stop rain water from rushing onto the streets.
Rain water, which drains into these giant intake silos, flows at an accelerated rate along a huge 6.3km long underground tunnel into a colossal surge cavern, measuring 177m in length, 78m in width and 25.4m in height.
From here, the water is discharged into the sea by a number of 10-megawatt gas-turbine pumps, at an astonishing rate of 200 cubic metres per second.
Since Singapore plans to be self-sufficient in water management in the future, adopting this system can turn a perennial nuisance into a precious asset by not discharging the water into the sea in the first instance, but instead into our 15 reservoirs.
Only when these reservoirs are judiciously filled to near-capacity will the excess water be discharged into the sea.
I hope the PUB will study the unique flood-control system in the Saitama Prefecture and, if deemed viable, adopt or adapt it posthaste before our reputation as one of the world's most liveable cities is reduced to tatters by flash floods.
Sea change needed
Saitama example could provide solution to flood woes
Letter from Tan Keng Tat
05:55 AM Jul 30, 2010
I REFER to the PUB's plans to "fast-track drainage improvement works - widening and deepening drains and raising road levels - in five areas around Singapore" to prevent potential floods in future ("Wider, deeper drains", July 24).
These plans are commendable but paradoxically, in the experience of Kasukabe City in the low-lying Saitama Prefecture, near Tokyo, only a holistic and audacious approach can stop flash floods in Singapore for good. Anything less will only postpone the inevitable.
Kasukabe City, which was hit by six major floods, solved its problem by constructing the world's largest underground water infrastructure, consisting of five giant, vertical intake silos, each 65 metres in depth. These giant intake silos are located near recalcitrant rivers, canals and waterways to stop rain water from rushing onto the streets.
Rain water, which drains into these giant intake silos, flows at an accelerated rate along a huge 6.3km long underground tunnel into a colossal surge cavern, measuring 177m in length, 78m in width and 25.4m in height.
From here, the water is discharged into the sea by a number of 10-megawatt gas-turbine pumps, at an astonishing rate of 200 cubic metres per second.
Since Singapore plans to be self-sufficient in water management in the future, adopting this system can turn a perennial nuisance into a precious asset by not discharging the water into the sea in the first instance, but instead into our 15 reservoirs.
Only when these reservoirs are judiciously filled to near-capacity will the excess water be discharged into the sea.
I hope the PUB will study the unique flood-control system in the Saitama Prefecture and, if deemed viable, adopt or adapt it posthaste before our reputation as one of the world's most liveable cities is reduced to tatters by flash floods.
