Life.Culture.Discovery.

ReflectionsSingapore braces for rising sea levels, taking practical steps to prepare for climate change

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong recently announced plans to protect the island nation against a projected one metre rise in sea levels

In ancient China, legend tells of how one man redirected floodwaters to become king

2-MIN READ2-MIN

Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong recently announced plans to prepare against the threats posed by climate change. Photo: AFP

Published: 1:45pm, 10 Sep 2019Updated: 1:47pm, 10 Sep 2019

Climate change featured prominently in Singapore’s recent National Day Rally, an annual speech given by the prime minister to spell out important challenges the city state faces and to announce policy initiatives or changes. Rising sea levels were couched in existential terms, as a matter of “life and death” for the island nation, and Lee Hsien Loong warned that the country’s low-lying coastal areas could be underwater by the end of the century, with sea levels projected to rise by one metre.

To protect Singapore against rising waters, Lee proposed the implementation of “a 50- to 100-year solution” at a cost of around S$100 billion (US$72.4 billion). “We must make this effort,” he said. “Otherwise one day, our children and grandchildren will be ashamed of what our generation did not do.” Whatever one may say about Singapore’s government, one cannot say that it does not think far ahead.

Around 4,000 years ago, the Earth might also have experienced a major climatic change that resulted in a great flood, a common motif found in the myths and legends of multiple peoples and cultures, from the Hebrews in the Levant to the Mayans in Mesoamerica. In China, the deluge myth found expression in the story of Gun and Yu Controlling the Flood.

In this traditional narrative, the North China Plain was severely inundated by the waters of the Yellow River. The sage-king Yao commissioned Gun to mitigate the flooding, which he tried to do by constructing levees along the banks of the river. It didn’t work, so Yao’s successor, Shun, appointed Gun’s son, Yu, to take over.

Yu, a legendary ruler in ancient China who was famed for his flood control measures. Photo: Alamy

Instead of erecting barriers to stop the river water from overflowing, Yu drained the Yellow River into canals that conveyed the excess water eastward into the sea. The floods were controlled and the people were happy with Yu’s achievements. In time, Shun, the last of “the Five Emperors”, abdicated his throne in Yu’s favour.