SINGAPORE - At a former village headman’s house on Pulau Ubin on March 2 – a sunny day – Madam Tan Luay Ching’s daughter and domestic helper were sweeping away flood waters from the porch.

SINGAPORE – Lifelong Pulau Ubin resident Ong Kim Cheng, 67, loves his island idyll and is happy to forgo most of the urban conveniences that Singaporeans enjoy. But the one municipal concern he ...