PUB looking into more flood protection for
Orchard Road
Published on Nov 15, 2011
National water agency PUB has commissioned an independent study to look into more flood protection measures for Orchard
Road. -- PHOTO: STOMP
By Feng Zengkun
National water agency PUB has commissioned an independent study to look into more flood protection
measures for Orchard Road.
This includes a possible water retention pond and a diversion canal in the area.
The study was started in August and will be completed by 2012.
The agency will also publish new guidelines for buildings here on Dec 1 to combat floods; these are expected
to include higher platform and crest levels for buildings.
Wildlife Reserves Singapore helps zoo animals
caught in Thai floods
Published on Nov 15, 2011
Rescue of Sambar deer (Rusa unicolor), carried out by the Zoological Park Organisation. -- PHOTO: THE WORLD
ASSOCIATION OF ZOOS AND AQUARIUMS (WAZA).
Animals at Thai zoos have not been forgotten amid the recent devastating floods that have hit the country. A
vet and a quarantine officer from Wildlife Reserves Singapore left for Thailand on Tuesday morning with
drugs, an anesthetic machine and other equipment such as snake hooks and nets. They will also help to capture
escaped reptiles as well as provide medical care.
The move is part of the Wildlife Reserves Singapore's (WRS) collaborative effort with the World Association
of Zoos and Aquariums (Waza). The two vets will also render their expertise in the capture of escaped reptiles
and provision of medical care.
'We will continue to assess the situation together with the Thai conservation groups, and determine further
levels of assistance needed,' said WRS' director and group chief executive Isabella Loh.
Besides WRS, the Japanese Association of Zoos and Aquariums has also chipped in to help.
New support centre for March 11 tsunami
evacuees opens
Published on Nov 15, 2011
A $1.05-million support centre to help more than 1,000 evacuees of the Mar 11 tsunami in Japan was opened in Miyako City,
Iwate Prefecture on Tuesday. -- PHOTO: Ministry of Foreign Affairs
A $1.05-million support centre to help more than 1,000 evacuees of the March 11 tsunami in Japan was
opened in Miyako City, Iwate Prefecture on Tuesday.
The Taro Support Centre is the first reconstruction project funded by the $35 million raised through the
Singapore Red Cross to be completed.
The centre will serve the evacuees previously living in temporary housing developments, and is expected to
serve another 200 households within a 10km radius. It boasts bathing facilities, a kitchen, a relaxation room
and an area which can be converted into a meeting room.
It will be managed by a social welfare association, Taro Washinkai, which will provide rehabilitation services
to the elderly who will constitute 30 per cent of its residents.
Dutch water management experts offer
Thailand assistance
Published on Nov 15, 2011
(THE NATION/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - The Dutch Ambassador and a team of water management
experts from The Netherlands met Thai prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra and the 10-strong Strategic
Committee for Water Resources Management at Government House on Tuesday to discuss possible solutions
to Thailand's flood crisis.
Committee member Dr Anond Snidwong na Ayudhaya revealed it was initially concluded that a water seminar
be hosted early next year and Thai social experts such as Chulalongkorn University (CU) political scientist
Surachai Wankaew be invited to join the water resources body.
Dutch Ambassador Johannes Andries Boer led a team of water management experts from the Netherlands to
talk with Ms Yingluck and representatives from the strategic committee such as Anond, Seri Supparathit and
Veera Wongsaengnak.
Following the meeting, Mr Anond said the Netherlands offered to organise a seminar for knowledge exchange
with Thailand in the format of a 'Water Fair' in February 2012. But Ms Yingluck would like to organise it
earlier, so she assigned Mr Anond to discuss details further with the ambassador.
Polluted water a threat to sea-life in the Gulf of
Thailand
Published on Nov 15, 2011
At a marine scientists' seminar at Chulalongkorn University (CU), Asst Prof Pramot Sojisuporn from CU's
Physical Oceanography Department, said some 10 billion cubic metres of polluted water would pour into the
Gulf over a short period. This would cause the salinity to be dramatically lowered from the Gulf's normal level
of 32 parts-per-thousand (ppt) to just 2ppt.
The seawater at a 5km radius from the coast and 15km-deep would be like freshwater, affecting the mangrove
bio-system and creatures exposed to such conditions for one to two months could be killed, he said.
'Normally, if freshwater pours into the sea and remains for only a week, it won't extensively affect the area and
creatures. But this flood water would affect coastal incubation grounds for shells, as well as the chub, (and)
mackerel in Phetchaburi and Samut Sakhon,' he said.
This could affect the Gulf even more severely than the tsunami and the great flood in 1983.
Clinton to offer support to Philippines,
Thailand
Published on Nov 15, 2011
ANDERSEN AIR FORCE BASE, Guam (AFP) - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will announce new
support for the Philippines and flood-hit Thailand as she shores up ties with key US allies, officials said on
Tuesday.
Mrs Clinton was due on Tuesday in the Philippines and will head later this week to Thailand, part of a renewed
US focus on Asia. President Barack Obama is traveling separately to Australia, another longtime ally in the
region.
Officials accompanying Mrs Clinton, whose plane made a brief refueling stop in the US territory of Guam,
said she would hold talks on Wednesday with Philippine President Benigno Aquino and tour a warship, at a
time of high tension between Manila and Beijing over disputed territories in the South China Sea.
The United States recently provided the Philippines with a destroyer and Mrs Clinton will discuss offering a
second one, the officials said. They said Mrs Clinton will also look for ways to step up cooperation at sea.
Bangkok floods could go into next year: Thai
PM
Published on Nov 15, 2011
Thai men ride a boat next to a house damaged by floods on the outskirts of Bangkok, Thailand on Nov 14. -- PHOTO: AP
BANGKOK (AFP) - Parts of Bangkok could still be flooded next year, Thailand's prime minister said on
Tuesday, despite waters receding significantly in some areas of the city after weeks of inundation.
Thailand's worst floods in half a century, caused by months of unusually heavy monsoon rains, have left at
least 562 people dead and damaged millions of homes and livelihoods around the country.
In an effort to spare Bangkok's economic and political heartland, authorities have been trying to drain the
floods through waterways in the east and west of the sprawling capital of 12 million people, and out to sea.
But while Bangkok's centre has remained dry, it could be a number of weeks before the entire capital is free
from the flood waters, according to Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.
'Personally I want to see people happy in the new year, but I am not confident about western areas, where it is
difficult to drain water,' she told reporters, when asked whether the floods would go on into 2012.
She said that eastern areas were likely to be dry before the new year.
'The general situation is stable as flood waters drain into the sea, but how quickly it drains depends on the
contours of each area,' Ms Yingluck added.
On Monday, angry residents in the city's flooded west protested by briefly blocking a major highway, as
frustration mounted that parts of the Thai capital are suffering badly while the centre stays dry.
Around 70 people also gathered at a major flood wall in northern Don Muang district, watched by about 30
police officers, to stop authorities repairing a gap they had opened to allow water to drain away from badly
flooded areas.
A spokesman for the Flood Relief Operations Centre (FROC), the government agency charged with dealing
with the floods, said a compromise had been struck to partially repair the 8m breach.
Ms Yingluck, who only came to power in August and has come under intense pressure over her management
of the flood crisis, insisted again on Tuesday that she had worked 'with good intention and to the best of her
ability'.
United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, due to visit the flood-hit kingdom on Wednesday, will offer a
'very substantial' aid package to Thailand, the State Department has said.
Thai elephant park reopens as sign of recovery
Published on Nov 15, 2011
AYUTTHAYA, Thailand (AP) - Authorities in Thailand have reopened a major elephant park in the ancient
capital of Ayutthaya, hoping to show tourists the country is returning to normal following historic floods.
The elephants stood and sat with their mahouts through a prayer ceremony asking for blessings as the park
opened on Tuesday for the first time since September.
The park is famous for offering tourists elephant rides through the ancient temple ruins that dot the Unesco
World Heritage site 80km north of Bangkok.
The camp's 98 elephants had been stranded throughout the flood on a small space of dry land.
Some land in Japan too radioactive to farm:
Study
Published on Nov 15, 2011
TOKYO (AFP) - Farmland in parts of Japan is no longer safe because of high levels of radiation in the soil,
scientists have warned, as the country struggles to recover from the Fukushima atomic disaster.
A team of international researchers said food production would likely be 'severely impaired' by the elevated
levels of caesium found in soil samples across eastern Fukushima in the wake of meltdowns at the tsunami-hit
plant.
The study, published in the Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences journal, suggests farming in
neighbouring areas may also suffer because of radiation, although levels discovered there were within legal
limits.
'Fukushima prefecture as a whole is highly contaminated,' especially to the north-west of the nuclear power
plant, the researchers said.
5.2 magnitude earthquake hits eastern Turkey
Published on Nov 15, 2011
A magnitude-5.2 quake early on Tuesday shook eastern Turkey - already devastated by two powerful tremors, the Kandilli
observatory said. -- PHOTO: AP
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) - A magnitude-5.2 quake early on Tuesday shook eastern Turkey - already devastated
by two powerful tremors, the Kandilli observatory said.
The latest quake hit Van province but there was no immediate report of damage or injuries, state-run Anatolia
news agency said. Its epicentre was in the village of Mollakasim, the observatory said in a statement.
Previous quakes have turned Van, the provincial capital of half a million, into a virtual ghost town, Governor
Munir Karaloglu said Monday. He called for urgent relief aid for survivors.
Last month's magnitude-7.2 quake and a magnitude-5.7 quake last week flattened some 2,000 buildings, killed
644 people and left thousands homeless in the eastern province, where an unusually cold November is forcing
survivors to endure even more suffering.