SINGAPORE: As torrential rain lashes the northwest coast of Singapore, home to the country’s first wetland nature reserve at Sungei Buloh, a public alarm system blares a warning to get people to evacuate areas prone to flooding.
Then, as water levels rise to around 80cm, certain areas of the nature reserve – like its car park – become submerged temporarily for several hours, until the rain stops and the water finally recedes to the coast.
This is what the future could look like in Singapore’s northwest coast, where authorities are considering designating the public trails around the Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve visitor centre and the nearby carpark as a “transiently floodable coastal area” – allowing it to flood during extreme high tides or storm surges.
Besides the car park, the existing dam at Kranji reservoir could be converted into a “multi-functional” infrastructure, and the Kranji tidal gatehouse could be repurposed into an educational destination.
The dam structure could also be widened and raised as part of potential coastal protection measures.
These were among several key suggestions presented to 50 participants at a community dialogue on measures to protect a part of Singapore’s northwest coast held at Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve’s visitor centre on Saturday (Sep 27).
