National water agency PUB says it will study the Orchard Road Business Association’s (ORBA) proposal for an underground tank to quell floods along Singapore’s prime shopping belt.
But as an immediate step, it will work with affected building owners to boost their flood prevention measures.
This was disclosed at a closed-door meeting on Thursday between PUB and the ORBA at Trader’s Hotel, one of the places along Orchard Road that was also affected by the floods last Sunday.
It’s understood that about 50 people including representatives from PUB, Singapore Tourism board and affected shopping malls turned up for the meeting.
ORBA has said that it is disappointed with PUB and wants long-term solutions to tackle the flood woes.
PUB described the meeting as “very useful”, with many ideas exchanged during the session.
And the proposal for an empty plot of land in the precinct to be used as a green space - with an underground tank to hold excess rainwater - was discussed.
PUB said it would also look into suggestions to place water “holding tanks” in the basement of buildings.
“That’s a very good idea, and we actually have been thinking of using retention ponds. So it’s an idea that we will take back and study very carefully. Basically, we want to find an optimal solution to improving the flood protection to Orchard Road,” said George Madhavan, PUB’s director for 3P Network Department.
For now, PUB will lend its expertise to six building owners including Tanglin Mall and St Regis Residences - which were badly affected by last Sunday’s floods - to build “crests”.
“Crests are actually just road humps that will prevent water from flowing into carparks. So they are not too difficult to construct. It can be done quite quickly,” said Mr George Madhavan.
PUB also said it is studying the idea of building a diversion canal from Stamford Canal to ease flood woes along the shopping belt.
The association felt that the meeting was cordial and that PUB was forthcoming in its explanations.
“There are still a lot of questions that cannot be answered because some of them of long-terms issues. We still want to know what is PUB’s long-term plan to address the flood problem because it seems like no one can guarantee that the flood will not happen again,” said Steven Goh, executive director of Orchard Road Business Association.
