It is difficult to understand why the problem of flooding in the city continues after more than two decades of destructive impact on residents, business operations and the stress that results when commuters find it impossible to get out of the city at the end of a rainy day.It is difficult because of the fact that the problems that cause the flooding have been well known for as long as the flooding has occurred. On Monday, city Mayor Louis Lee Sing said the problems have to do with the drains being too narrow and too shallow and therefore in need of deepening and widening to increase the quantity of water they can carry. But that was said to the city fathers and government over 25 years ago by engineer Dr Emru Millette. He put forward a set of proposals and plans for upgrading the drainage infrastructure.
Those proposals were never acted upon and are probably past their best operational value at this moment, the situation having changed dramatically over the quarter century. For one, construction on the sides of the hills and mountains which fringe the northern parts of the city has raced ahead, in many instances seemingly without consideration for the environment. Often, it seems as if the Town and Country Planning Division, responsible for keeping a watching brief over these matters, is not informed about the construction of projects nor does it have the powers to prevent the potentially destructive construction. City engineers and the average man in the street have also consistently complained about indiscriminate dumping into water courses further clogging the inadequate drainage system in the city. The cavalier paving of a large portion of the Savannah, thus negating water absorption over that large piece of ground, has also been responsible for the great flush of water into the drains and streets surrounding the Savannah.
Now these are not intractable problems without solutions, nor are the solutions so difficult that they could have taken 25 years to implement. Over the period of failure to act, the revenues received by succeeding governments have been counted in tens of billion of dollars; money has not been a problem. Likewise, every Minister of Works has promised action and solution. Minister Warner, a man with a record of achievement in a variety of pursuits, is once again promising boldly that come next year the problems would have been "a thing of the past." Mayor Lee Sing has been talking about retention ponds to be situated on the shorelines. There are no details on how and where precisely the ponds would be established, but it would seem that the ponds at sea will only cater for the water that has already coursed through the streets and drains.
Maybe there is some great engineering solution which has not yet been fully explained, but it seems logical to have the retention ponds before the water goes into the drainage system. There is no better open area for such ponds than the Queen's Park Savannah. There is the space there for the ponds and it must certainly be one of the major sources of the water going into drains. It goes without saying that the ponds can be dug to allow for the water to flow naturally into them and covered in a manner that does not destroy the ambience of the place and also preserves the greenery and other aspects of the environment. With a series of pumps to send the water for processing and use, we not only tackle the flooding problems but assist with the dry season shortage of water.
So with such eminently feasible solutions that come out of the problems, we are challenging Works Minister Warner to come good on his promises.