A milestone on the road to independence? Singapore’s catastrophic 1954 floods

• Main Author: WILLIAMSON, Fiona
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2016
• Subjects: Floods; History; Singapore; Politics; Recovery; Social History
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/2654; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/soss_research/article/3911/viewcontent/environment_amp_society_portal___a_milestone_on_the_road_to_independence_singapores_catastrophic_1954_floods___2018_06_26.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

A combination of torrential and prolonged rains, high tides, and insufficient flood control caused some of the worst flooding known in Singapore in the first two weeks of December 1954. Early 1950s Singapore was a British Crown Colony and part of the Federation of Malaya. It was a particularly tense time politically, with the rise of nationalist movements and an ongoing state of “emergency” declared by the British government in response to a perceived communist threat supported by some members of the Chinese community. The 1954 floods were a disaster that piled more pressure onto an already stressed community. More than 10,000 people were affected; 5,000 were temporarily or permanently displaced. Five people died on the night of the 17 December when their rescue boat capsized—the first victims of the disaster. The worst affected areas were also some of the poorest: kampong (rural village) communities on the north and eastern fringes of the city, including Potong Pasir, Braddell Road, Lorong Tai Seng, Geylang Serai, and Bedok. Immediate disaster response, medium-term rehabilitation, and long-term improvements to flood mitigation works amounted to hundreds of thousands of Straits dollars.