Last day at PUB

Disclaimer: This post is not endorsed by PUB, nor is it part of my Industrial Attachment requirement. I might have quoted some information from my final report, but thats about it :)

And so 22 weeks of Industrial Attachment have blown by. While others were celebrating the end of exams 1 month ago, we were waking up at 7am daily to go to work (of course, I probably deserved it for emphasizing my lack of exams). Now, our turn has finally come; unless of course you're one of those who extended your attachment period.

Its been an interesting 22 weeks at PUB, and certainly an eye-opening experience for me in terms of having a taste of working life in the public sector as compared to my previous experience with a local SME. While work in Alpha Biofuels three years ago was characterised by its informality, the sheer variety of tasks and the groundwork involved, life in PUB has been very much different. Here's where you probably start listing down your stereotypes of a job in the public service:

1) Stuffy, boring
2) Nine to five
3) Formal
4) Old fashioned
5) Bureaucratic

I won't exactly say they're wrong, but its definitely not that bad (it helps if you're attached to an interesting department).

I was attached to the Catchment and Waterways department, which deals with our reservoirs and drains. Not too interesting, you'd think? Here's the catch - I was also attached to the ABC Waters division within that department. For those unacquainted with the promotional efforts of PUB (how could you not know Water Wally?!), ABC stands for Active, Beautiful, Clean.

Water Wally! So cute :3

Water Wally even has its own cartoon

Anyway, in a nutshell, the ABC Waters Programme aims to beautify our waterways (i.e boring, dreary concrete drains and canals) by integrating with the green landscape and  bringing people closer to water in the hope that they would take ownership and not contribute to pollution. While this all sounds all rosy and double rainbowish, what has my work got to do with any of this? Well for the past 22 weeks I've been involved in the more technical aspects of this Programme.

PUB is implementing what it calls "ABC Waters Design Features" in various areas around Singapore, and is also encouraging private developers to do the same. For new buyers of those expensive HDB projects along the edge of Punggol Waterway, your houses will have these features, look out for them :)

What exactly are "Design Features"? Known in other parts of the world as Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS) and Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD), these "Design Features" aim to change the way we approach storm water drainage - which traditionally involves concrete drains, concrete canals and more concrete. For the uninitiated, too much storm water run-off is bad, bad, and did I mention bad? If you recall the previous Orchard Road floodings and the flooded drain that swept an Indonesian kid away, that's what too much run-off can do.

The root cause of it? Urbanisation. The problem with too much concrete is, it prevents rainwater from entering the ground; instead it flows over our roofs, our roads, our footpaths and into our drains, too fast too furiously. That's good you say, so it won't flood. True, but only if you're located near the start of the drainage system. For the people downstream though, this surge of water from further upstream quickly overwhelms their stretch of the drains (as was the case in Orchard Road, with the Stamford canal flooded beyond its capacity).

The "Design Features" are essentially natural drainage systems that mimic nature's way of controlling storm water run-off - by using plants. Rain gardens, bioretention swales and constructed wetlands all fall under this category and their main function is simple - to slow down the flow while removing pollutants, utilising the soil, bacteria and plants to filter out sediments and nutrients that might pollute our rivers. The benefits? Less floods, cleaner rivers and less strain on our treatment plants that treat the water which eventually comes out of our taps.

The interesting characters I run into during the course of my job

Before I start to sound like a PUB spokesperson, lets just say that from the day I started reading up about all these during my first day at work, I was sold. Replacing concrete drains with soil and plants? Hell yeah. Slowing down the flow and getting rid of nasty stuff so the poor folks downstream don't get flooded with polluted water?

I didn't sign up to be an Environmental Engineer for nothing. As you might expect, I loved going down to site. You would too, despite the hot weather and all, if your site looked like this:

The transformed Bishan Park

If I had any IA regrets at all, it would be me being the only intern in the department (and on a separate floor to boot). It got a little lonely and boring at times especially on those long, desk-bound days. Guess nothing can compare to the crazy things me and the other interns did back in those Alpha days XD

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So, its the end of my Industrial Attachment. I did feel a bit guilty that I didn't request to extend, considering that my colleagues will be very busy with the upcoming Singapore International Water Week (SIWW). But hey, I'll be heading to Japan with my parents in a week's time (more in a later post) and I'll finally have time to sit down and study for my JLPT N4 test ^^;. I did volunteer to help out for the SIWW though, hopefully I'll be able to attend :D