'Elevation map that can help fight flooding may cost up to $125m
Data from such mapping can be used in a computer model to predict floods, experts say
A map that can show the height of land across Singapore and help fight the flooding problem could cost up to $125 million.
Users of the map, accurate to within 10cm, would have a better idea of where rainwater would flow during storms. The data, plus information on land use and rainfall patterns, would be a good fit for a flood-prediction computer model which does not now exist….'
This is the headline and first two paras of a report in the main media. $125m for a map is cheap. I got mine for $2 at the petrol kiosk. At least it is a fraction of what was brooch sometime back that it would cost at least a few billion bucks to have a computerised signalling system for the trains to travel faster and keep the trains apart from 3 sec to 2 sec, safely. I am wondering how many trips will the train company have to run to cover the cost of a few billion bucks and how many years, to break even. Only tin heads can even consider such a proposal as worth mentioning.
But a $125m map is different. It will help the engineers and planners to know where the rain water will flow and can then come up with a precise and effective drainage system to prevent ponding. Funny that until today, with all the flooding, they still did not know where the water will flow and where the floods are. So far all the great recommendations would come to billions of dollars for infrastructure works and a sophisticated monitoring system. Wonder if the damages at Liat Tower cost that much to justify the expenditure of billions of dollars of OPM or even $125m?.
What is good is that many jobs will be created, map making companies will have additional business, and the economy will be given a morphine jab. It is another way of circulating the money and lubricating the economy. Good idea and money worth spending. A few more of such ideas and there will be no fear of the economy slowing down.
8 comments:
Just how many percent of the 125m will be circulated in Singapore, or all being shipped out by FT(Talent/Trash)
Hey, if $300 million dollars spent on the Kiddie Games (I mean Youth Olympics) is a good investment ... what is $125 million dollars ... to find out where the water flows?
Alternative;
maybe Vivian Bala can stand in Orchard Road, the next time it rains ... and find out where the water flows.
Or if Bala is busy,
Lim Swee Say can go instead.
Surely PM Lee can spare one of his many Ministers in the Prime Minister's Office.
May be the cheaper, better, faster alternative.
A more creative and fruitful way is to sell charity ducks when there is a heavy downpour. The money collected can go to charity while they observe when the ducks will swim in the flood and do the mapping. Oops, in the ponds.
Ok don't laugh. I know this is a primitive way, but it works ok. No need big super computers and satellite mapping that cost millions and the returns miniscule.
But for a mapping to be of value, it must come along with a panel of experts and a lot of high tech equipment to look and sound respectable. Of course a $125m map is definitely more substantive than a $2 map or one done by charity ducks.
Mahathir is still pushing for the crooked bridge.
Yes, waste and inefficiency are good for the economy. We should create problems everywhere so we can hire experts to provide complicated solutions which will create more problems and in turn create more jobs to complicate matters even more and so on and so forth.
Brilliant idea to lubricate the economy and create more wealth and power for the elites.
Maybe those shopowners and residents prone to be affected by floods should have automatic electronic racks to place their goods and equipments on. It will have sensors that will raise the racks a foot or two above the water level all the time automatically. Provided of course, there are empty space above.
The $125m is only the deposit. If the affected area is not too big, renovated the place by creating a higher floor with a pond below. That should not be near the $125m, maybe $10m or $20m would solve the problem.
Where where else got flooding problem? How big is the area or how many areas are prone to flooding?
Why am I paying $1 miilion dollars to a Minister to hire a panel of experts.
Why not Singapore pay me $100,000 and I go and hire the experts. Singapore saves $900,000 in annual salary.
Post a Comment