A few years ago, it became headline news when Orchard Road was flooded and submerged in water.
Some of you guys might have remembered this event. On Wednesday, June 16th, 2010, many shopping malls around Orchard Road became flooded due to heavy rains, which ironically was suppose to be a dry month. But on that day, according to the PUB (Public Utilities Board), about 4 inches of rain fell during just two hours. The flood had caused some of the shopping malls and car park basements to be submerged in the water. Rescuers also had to pull out people from cars and buses.
Did you know that deforestation had a major contribution to this phenomenon? At it’s roots, the flood equation is quite straightforward: When there is rain, the water is naturally absorbed into streams, rivers, oceans, and into the soil. But analysing Singapore’s geography, there isn’t a lot of places, especially in urbanised areas, for the water to be absorbed or distributed (comparing per square land). With no place to be siphoned off, where does the water go? This becomes a flood issue. And this is exactly what happened in Singapore.
In Singapore’s past-time, the forestry areas acted like a sponge. Naturally, the soil and forestry areas prevents flooding because water sinks into the earth and is absorbed there. Some rainwater stays on the leaves, and it may evaporate directly to the air. However, due to deforestation and the construction of concrete plans it allowed the absorbent soil to be removed as there were no more trees and roots to anchor it. Thus, the water was unable to be absorbed causing the flood in Orchard. Although, since that incident the government has strived to solve this issue by creating more drainage systems and pipelines that interconnect with rivers, and other large bodies of water, it is clearly not enough. The event at Orchard road was only one of the events that I vividly remember reading on the news. There are many flooding events that occur throughout the year. I have compiled a list below of the main flash floods.
I compiled data from the number of flood occurrences in Singapore and recorded the major ones. As we see from this timeline, it is evident that the major flash floods that have caused harm and destruction of property is increasing. And this is due to urbanization. Although, flooding is only one of the consequences of deforestation, it is relevant to all of us. Deforestation leads to a plethora of other problems that would be faced evidently.