Sabah can learn from Singapore floods
Published on: Friday, February 07, 2020
By: David Thien
KOTA KINABALU: Singapore has already sent its urban planners to the Netherlands to study how best the island republic can alleviate the problem of rising sea level in future brought about by climate change. The highly publicised floods of 2010 flash floods on Orchard Road was a wake-up call for the city state.
What Sabah can learn from Singapore now is not about rising sea level mitigation, but how best to alleviate the perennial flash floor woes in the state capital and surrounding suburbs after bouts of heavy rainstorm.
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Sabahan tourists, if they have time should enjoy visiting the water catchment drainage parks around housing estates now connected with greenery (Park Connector) and park with walkway, cycling paths and recreation facilities where the local Singaporeans jog or walk with families, some with pets on leash for exercise and de-stress with picnic gatherings etc.
These vast green areas of water catchment may get flooded at heavy rainfall days so some have warning audible alarms that sound if the water level rises to a danger level to warn the public to stay off the waterway course until the flood water recedes.
The Park Connector Network is an innovative programme that allows busy Singaporeans to enjoy the outdoors more. Developed in cooperation with other government agencies by the National Parks Board, it involves the development of a green matrix of paths connecting parks and nature areas from underused spaces along roads, canals and railway corridors.
In land-scarce Singapore, these spaces promote diverse benefits – from healthier lifestyles and sustainable transport, to social interaction and biodiversity. The programme proved to be a popular and relatively low-cost solution that has brought recreation and nature much closer to people’s doorsteps and continues to evolve in interesting ways.
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Sabah can learn a lot from flood management in Singapore which has typically relied on developing urban drainage systems to handle large volumes of surface runoff generated during storm events in the last few decades.
In addition to the construction of new drainage infrastructures, most major natural waterways have been altered via channelisation to increase the volumetric discharge capacity. Stream alteration includes the widening, deepening, straightening and concrete-lining of rivers and streams. Presently, there are over 8000km of these hard-engineered drainage infrastructures in Singapore.
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Flood alleviation in Singapore has been successful with the Public Utility Board received over 190 million SGD per year to fund drainage-related projects from 2010 to 2014. In the 1960s, nearly 13 per cent (6900 ha) of Singapore’s main island was susceptible to severe flooding. Rapid urbanisation following nationhood in 1965 led to an increase the severity of the floods. In 1972, the Drainage Department was established to alleviate and prevent floods.
Through several major drainage projects, the flood prone areas reduced to 3200ha in the 1970s, and subsequently to 207 ha in the 1990s. Today, less than 50ha of Singapore are considered flood prone. To combat the effects of sea level rise, PUB raised the minimum land reclamation height from 3 to 4m in 2011 as a requirement under their “Code of Practice on Surface Water Drainage.”
Approximately 70 to 80 per cent of the shoreline is reinforced with embankments or sea walls to retard storm surges and curb coastal erosion.
The construction of the Marina Barrage in 2008, serves as a good example of what the Petagas River needs to prevent seawater backflow during high tide that slows our flash floods around Kota Kinabalu and Penampang.
Currently, the Marina Barrage which is a tourism activity spot, helps to protect low-lying areas in Singapore have experienced several major floods since the 1950s.
For example, in October 1954, heavy downpour of over 100 mm in 2.5 hours caused an approximately 30 cm-deep flood in the city centre where many cars were marooned.
In December 1969, one of the worst floods in Singapore history severed all road and rail links between Singapore and West Malaysia, crippled telephone and electricity systems, killed five people, and resulted in total damages of S$4.3 million, as many of Singapore’s low-lying areas were inundated.
The cause was heavy rainfall of 467 mm over a 17-hours period, coinciding with a high tide of 3.1 m. In December 1978 floods were again attributed to torrential monsoon rains with approximately 512 mm of rain falling in a 24-hours period.
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