The Land Transport Authority (LTA) should not take the accidental trigger of the deluge system inside the MCE lightly (“No seawater leak in MCE: LTA”; TODAYonline, April 14).
There are two areas of concern: Tremendous water wastage and safeguards to prevent the trigger. When the system was activated accidentally by the cleaning contractor, it went on for about two minutes. The system can reportedly dispense 350 litres of water a second. That is 42,000 litres of precious water wasted in two minutes.
Were there any safety measures or guidelines for workers to avoid triggering the system? The incident fortunately did not appear to cause damage, but having to divert traffic and clean up was a disruption for motorists.
Other organisations that use such systems should also learn from this incident and review their safety and prevention measures. The authorities should also step up the monitoring and supervising of contractors’ work, to minimise the chances of such a system being wrongly triggered.
There are two areas of concern: Tremendous water wastage and safeguards to prevent the trigger. When the system was activated accidentally by the cleaning contractor, it went on for about two minutes. The system can reportedly dispense 350 litres of water a second. That is 42,000 litres of precious water wasted in two minutes.
Were there any safety measures or guidelines for workers to avoid triggering the system? The incident fortunately did not appear to cause damage, but having to divert traffic and clean up was a disruption for motorists.
Other organisations that use such systems should also learn from this incident and review their safety and prevention measures. The authorities should also step up the monitoring and supervising of contractors’ work, to minimise the chances of such a system being wrongly triggered.
