There were many comments and suggestions to resolve the flood situation that crops up every now and then due to the worsening thunderstorms hitting Singapore these past few years. One of which I think is very important and will help in the controlling the flood situation is to reduce and delay run-off at the buildings with structures such as storage tanks, rain gardens, roof-top gardens and porous pavements.
The concept is very simple. Before the building is built, it is most probably originally a piece of green field and serves as a rain garden. I've written more about rain gardens in the post here. Therefore, that should be partly the reason why the area never had floods before the building is built. The water is most probably retained within the field.
The developers should at the very least ensure that the building on the land will not affect the nature surrounding the building. Therefore, creating the structures to control the run-offs as a result of these thunderstorms will help in alleviate the flood situation and developers or land owners should not push all the blame to the canal that is used for the whole of Singapore. In fact, if we really want to go into the details, I'm sure the run-off is lesser if the area was still a piece of field.
Be respectful to nature, and it will respect you too.
2 comments:
Individual buildings are not responsible for the current situation. The fault lies with the government department that permitted the construction of these buildings without adequate drainage requirements.
The authorities are in a way responsible for not enforcing this but by pushing the blame fully to them is not fair. The developers, with knowledge of what they are building and what effect it will have on the environment, should advise what can be done. It's a 2-way thing.
Developers are only concentrating on squeezing as much money as possible out of the land that they have purchased. That is evident from the size of all the balconies that are being built for the private flats.
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