Raising Orchard Road

24 Oct 2010 - I am still in Singapore and I read in the Strait Times newspaper that the Singapore Government plans to raise Orchard Road to a new level, literally, under a SGD 26 million project to stave off future floods. A low lying stretch of the shopping belt, from Orchard Parade Hotel to Cairnhill, will be raised by an average of 30 cm to prevent rainwater from overflowing onto the roads. Work will begin in November and is expected to be finished by the middle of 2011. It sounds like a major exercise, but raising the road appears a "tried and proven" method that can help prevent a recurrence of the flash floods that deluged parts of Orchard Road in June and |July this year. Maybe the Singapore Government can consult the Maldives before the islands sinks into the sea because of global warming. And maybe this is also something for the motherland?