The Most Ironic Awards - Lee Kuan Yew Water Prize & National Day 2010 (The Distinguished Service Order)

The PUB Chairman, Mr Tan Gee Paw, tops the list of National Day Awards Recipients this year when he was conferred this year's highest National Day Award honour - The Distinguished Service Order.

The Singapore International Water Week this year awarded the Lee Kuan Yew Water Prize 2010 to the Yellow River Conservancy Commission (YRCC). This prestigious award recognizes outstanding contributions towards solving global water problems by either applying technologies or implementing policies and programmers which benefit humanity. With its success in transforming China's second-longest river, YRCC outshone 49 other nominees to become the third recipient of the Lee Kuan Yew Water Prize.

Commenting on the achievements of YRCC, Mr. Tan Gee Paw, Chairman of the Lee Kuan Yew Water Prize Nominating Committee said: "The Lee Kuan Yew Water Prize celebrates the outstanding achievements of YRCC in integrated river basin management that is unrivalled in scale. In rejuvenating the Yellow River and managing floods, YRCC has brought about widespread and sustainable social, economic and environmental benefits to over one hundred million people. We look forward to YRCC sharing its innovative, holistic and sustainable river basin management practices at the Water Week, and inspiring greater impetus in establishing sustainable water solutions for increasingly urbanized communities worldwide."

The citation of award for the Lee Kuan Yew Water Prize to YRCC by Mr. Tan Gee Paw said that "In rejuvenating the Yellow River and managing floods, YRCC has brought about widespread and sustainable social, economic and environmental benefits to over one hundred million people..." and we "look forward to YRCC sharing its innovative, holistic and sustainable river basin management practices" at the Singapore International Water Week 2010 from June 28 to July 2, 2010. Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew presented the award during the Water week and YRCC also delivered the acclaimed Singapore Water Lecture to 300 government, business and academic leaders at the Water Leaders Summit, where the Commission shared its experience and success factors in returning life and vitality to the Yellow River.

The "WATER WORLD" reported ~ ~ ~ The winning factors include its river management approach "Maintaining the Healthy Life of the Yellow River," a systemic and holistic approach to the management, allocation and regulation of water supply. With 9 provinces and regions along the 5,464-kilometres long river, YRCC adopts a consultative approach to secure the support of the provincial governments and the people to equitably allocate water for domestic, industrial and agricultural uses, thus preventing abuse and over-exploitation of water resources. YRCC has also implemented an integrated operation of reservoirs along 3,000 kilometers of the river, to regulate river flow and boost storage capacity. Remote sensing and automation is employed to collect real-time river system information to monitor and control the reservoirs and dams. Through the coordinated operation of Xiaolangdi Dam and other reservoirs, YRCC has carried out 9 flushing operations since 2002 to regulate the flow of water and sediments in the lower reaches of the Yellow River. This has deepened the riverbed by an average of 1.5 meters for some 900 kilometers downstream of the river and more than doubled the river's maximum flow capacity from 1,800 m³/s to 3,880 m³/s to substantially improve flood safety . ~~~

Ironically the Great Orchard Flood happened on 16 June 2010, just before the Singapore International Water Week 2010 from June 28 to July 2. On 20 July 2010, MM Lee said " No amount of engineering can prevent flooding" after touring the waterfront development at the Kallang and Kolam Ayer areas. "Singaporeans expect everything to be perfect, which we try to do. But some things are beyond (that) - it's an act of God, unless you want to lose half the roads and have canals," Mr Lee said.



What have we learnt from the highly acclaimed Singapore Water Lecture by the Yellow River Conservancy Commission (YRCC) in "managing floods" as the host country giving out the prestigious Lee Kuan Yew Water Prize award ? - That it is "an act of GOD" and no amount "No amount of engineering can prevent flooding" ?

Lu Xun, one of the great thinkers of the democratic May 4th Movement in the first decades of the 20th century, made a famous attack on the then ruling elite for issuing telegrams that blamed God for the woes befalling China. Lu quipped, "God replied in dismay: 'But I wasn't even there!'”

The winner of the Lee Kuan Yew Water Prize receives a cash prize of SGD300,000, an award certificate and a gold medallion. The award is solely sponsored by the Singapore Millennium Foundation, a philanthropic body supported by Temasek Holdings that has pledged SGD1.5 million over five years since 2008.

These AWARDS must be the most ironical ones given out, with the Lee Kuan Yew Water Prize named in honour of our MM who believes that "No amount of engineering can prevent flooding" and all just when our own Orchard Road had just flooded due to "2 bursts of heavy downpour 30 minutes apart - 100mm of rainfall within 2 hours and clogged drains were the causes as explained by the PUB. No wonder Mr Tan Gee Paw felt "deeply honoured" to receive this prestigious National Day Award - The Distinguished Service Order.

Lee Kuan Yew Water Prize 2010

Read also :- A Tale of Two Cities - Engineering Flood Controls

Reference # 1 :-

Straits Times Online

Aug 9, 2010

PUB chairman tops list

By Maria Almenoar

2010 National Day Award Recipients

BACK in the 1960s, a young civil engineer in the Environment Ministry by the name of Mr Tan Gee Paw was transferred to the ministry's drainage department.

That was the day he saw his dreams of building housing estates and bridges go up in smoke.

To him, he was being sent to look after longkangs, the Malay word for drains, as he once wryly said.

But something about drains got to him within three years.

He stayed.

Those three years have stretched into 40 in the environmental and water engineering field here, the last nine of which he spent as chairman of national water agency PUB.

For helping to solve the islandwide flooding problems in the 1970s with a drainage system, for pioneering urban catchment areas, for his role in developing Newater and for his dedication to the field, he is being given the Distinguished Service Order in this year's honour roll of National Day Award recipients.

It is the highest award being given out this year to 3,195 individuals for outstanding contributions to the country, in public service or in community work.

Mr Tan, replying to reporters' questions through e-mail, paid tribute to the tireless work of his staff at PUB.

'I am indeed deeply honoured to receive this prestigious award, and my first thoughts are of the dedicated staff of PUB, who have worked professionally and quietly over the past decades.'

This award is only his latest: He was among 10 people given gold medals in 1987 for meeting then Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew's challenge to clean up the Singapore River.

In 2007, under his watch, PUB bagged the prestigious Stockholm Industry Water Award, the water industry's equivalent of the Nobel Prize; that year, he also won the President's Award for the Environment.

Mr Tan Gee Paw, chairman of PUB, with the national water agency's mascot Water Wally. The bright blue water droplet was introduced in 2005 to promote water conservation. Mr Tan has been conferred this year's highest National Day Award honour - the Distinguished Service Order - for his contributions to the country. -- ST PHOTO: MUGILAN RAJASEGERAN

Reference # 2 :-

Abracted From :

WATERWORLD 

Lee Kuan Yew Water Prize awarded to Yellow River Conservancy Commission

SINGAPORE, March 3, 2010 -- The Singapore International Water Week today announced that the Yellow River Conservancy Commission (YRCC) has been awarded the Lee Kuan Yew Water Prize 2010, a prestigious award that recognizes outstanding contributions towards solving global water problems by either applying technologies or implementing policies and programmers which benefit humanity. With its success in transforming China's second-longest river, YRCC outshone 49 other nominees to become the third recipient of the Lee Kuan Yew Water Prize.

The Lee Kuan Yew Water Prize Council recognized Arc's remarkable progress in overcoming natural and man-made challenges through innovative and sustainable policies and solutions that have enabled the Yellow River to flow unabated over the last 10 years. YRCC's integrated water allocation programmed balances water availability with social, economic and ecological developments. The improved, reliable supply of water brought about by YRCC's efforts have benefitted and enhanced the quality of life for over one hundred million people both in the basin and in regions served by the river. Large areas of wetlands and biodiversity in Yellow River Delta have also been restored over the years, returning life and vitality to the river.

By regulating water and sediment flow in a river that has the highest average annual sediment transporting volume and concentration in the world, YRCC has been able to significantly reduce the risk of devastating floods that the Yellow River was previously associated with - protecting the 90 million people living in the flood-prone areas downstream of the river from loss of lives and damage to livelihoods and property.

Commenting on the achievements of YRCC, Mr. Tan Gee Paw, Chairman of the Lee Kuan Yew Water Prize Nominating Committee said: "The Lee Kuan Yew Water Prize celebrates the outstanding achievements of YRCC in integrated river basin management that is unrivalled in scale. In rejuvenating the Yellow River and managing floods, YRCC has brought about widespread and sustainable social, economic and environmental benefits to over one hundred million people. We look forward to YRCC sharing its innovative, holistic and sustainable river basin management practices at the Water Week, and inspiring greater impetus in establishing sustainable water solutions for increasingly urbanized communities worldwide."

YRCC will receive the award from Singapore's first Prime Minister and present Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew at Singapore International Water Week 2010 which will be held from June 28 to July 2, 2010. YRCC will also deliver the acclaimed Singapore Water Lecture to 300 government, business and academic leaders at the Water Leaders Summit, where the Commission will share its experience and success factors in returning life and vitality to the Yellow River.....