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Nurseries, farms glad for rain but keep their guard up

SINGAPORE — Businesses badly hit by the recent dry spell, such as vegetable farmers, reacted with glee to the downpours over the past two days, although some continued to express apprehension over letting their guard down despite the forecast of thundery showers for the next few days.

Green Gween nursery was among the local businesses that are hoping for more rain, as ‘the plants have to do a lot of catching up’. 
Today File Photo

Green Gween nursery was among the local businesses that are hoping for more rain, as ‘the plants have to do a lot of catching up’.
Today File Photo

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SINGAPORE — Businesses badly hit by the recent dry spell, such as vegetable farmers, reacted with glee to the downpours over the past two days, although some continued to express apprehension over letting their guard down despite the forecast of thundery showers for the next few days.

Widespread showers fell in the late morning and afternoon yesterday — the highest rainfall of 51.6mm was recorded at Yishun at 4pm — following the downpour on Sunday. It ended a 27-day dry spell in Singapore that had given some businesses ballooning water bills and caused some farmers’ production to fall by about 20 to 30 per cent.

These firms are keeping their fingers crossed that the National Environment Agency’s (NEA) forecast for more rain in the coming days will come true. Said Candy Floriculture Director Sharon Goh: “It will take one or two weeks before my plants will fully recover.”

Green Gween Landscape Design and Construction’s owner, Mr John Gwee, added: “We really need more rain ... because the plants have to do a lot of catching up in retaining water as a form of reservoir for themselves — they need to have constant replenishment from the rain in order to have a certain degree of moisture in the soil.”

Others, such as Yili Vegetation and Trading Managing Director Alan Toh, are just glad for the respite — he had planned to purchase non-potable water from the PUB to water his vegetables yesterday, but shelved these plans because of Sunday’s rain.

“I feel like I’ve won 4D. My problems have been solved. Now we can go back to normal operations and start planting new crops,” he said.

Farm 85 Trading’s owner Tan Koon Hua, however, is not taking any chances. He has expanded the capacity of his irrigation pond by raising its height by 5 metres.

“It’s as much as we can raise its water levels without having to apply for permits from the authorities but, with the additional capacity, we should be able to store enough water to last for 10 more days,” he said.

Similarly, town councils, which have been implementing water-saving measures such as reducing the frequency of block-washing, are adopting a wait-and-see approach.

Said a spokesperson for Tampines Town Council: “We are still closely monitoring the situation because it might be a temporary relief. Through the next week or so, if we continue to have regular rainfall, then we will resume normal block washing.”

In response to queries, national water agency PUB said its measures to keep our reservoirs’ water levels healthy are still in place. “We are running our operations at status quo, with about 35 million gallons a day of NEWater injected into the reservoirs,” said a spokesperson. Desalination and NEWater plants are also still running at full capacity, she added.

The agency continued its call for the public to conserve water and “make it a way of life” even though “some rain has returned”.

Meanwhile, the widespread showers also brought respite in terms of air quality. Yesterday, the 24-hour Pollutant Standards Index was 16-23 at 6pm, with the NEA predicting the index to remain in the “moderate” range today.

Showers over Peninsular Malaysia and central Sumatra have also helped to improve the haze situation in these areas, with air quality in most areas of Peninsular Malaysia in the “good” range yesterday afternoon, it said.

Winds in the surrounding region are expected to blow mainly from the north-east, said the NEA, although slightly hazy conditions can be expected if there are hot spot activities in southern Johor.

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