The management of Lucky Plaza is mulling over putting up a 1m barrier in front of its building to prevent floodwaters from inundating its basement again.

It will engage professionals to look into the design of a barrier, a spokesman for the management council told The Sunday Times.

The PUB had recommended this measure among others in a meeting with the management last Tuesday, it added.

As the shopping centre - a popular hangout for Filipinos - was built before 1984, it does not conform to the PUB guideline that entrances be 1m above the highest known flood level.

Water flowed into its basement stores, as well as those of other older buildings in the Orchard Road area like Liat Towers, after a heavy downpour on the morning of June 16.

Shops and restaurants reported millions of dollars worth of damage, in the worst flooding of the shopping strip since 1984.

The management of Liat Towers told The New Paper it would engage architects and contractors to design raised platforms for its premises, at an estimated cost of at least half a million dollars.

The Lucky Plaza management could not give a cost estimate for the barrier.

It revealed, however, that it had spent almost $80,000 on improving the building's drainage system after a flood on Nov 28, 2007, that hit Orchard Road and Lower Delta Road, among other areas.

Meanwhile, newer shopping malls told The Sunday Times they were able to stay dry in the flood because their entrances were elevated.

Paragon, which was refurbished in 1998, has a flight of steps from the pedestrian walkway to its ground floor.

Rainwater spilled into a small part of its basement 2 carpark because its pipes could not discharge the huge amount of water in time, its spokesman said.

But kerbs and ramps stopped the water from entering its basement lift lobbies.

Business in the mall, which has more than 40 tenants in basement 1, was not disrupted, the spokesman said.

Ion Orchard, which opened in July last year and has four basement levels, said its entrances meet or even exceed the level stipulated by the PUB, by up to nearly 6m.

Five entrances lead to the basement linked to the Orchard MRT station, and another four to the ground level.

The mall also gave up about 700 sq m of retail space to build double-layered walls and floor slabs in its basement. Water seeping through a wall or a slab will enter the space between the walls and slabs, and be pumped out.

In a power failure, the mall's own generator will kick in to power the pumps. The mall also has a back-up pump should the first one fail.

Of Ion's 335 stores, 231 - or 69 per cent - are in the basement.

Said Ms Soon Su Lin, chief executive officer of Orchard Turn Developments, which developed Ion: 'The flood was a non-event for us.'

Source : The Straits Times © Singapore Press Holdings Ltd. Reprinted with permission.