Eight takeaways from yet another flood disaster in KL

So massive flash floods hit Kuala Lumpur again yesterday, causing great chaos. It’s yet another debacle in what is supposed to be a “world class” city.

Here are eight key points about this calamity.

1) Some Malaysians delight in disaster

Some people sounded like they were at a carnival when recording the floods. Even outright childish glee could be heard.

This is like the macabre excitement whenever some Malaysians encounter serious accidents. Perhaps this is why the government doesn’t take flood prevention so seriously?

2) The floods were predicted

The day before (March 6), the government’s Meteorological Department (Met) warned of possible flash floods in the Klang Valley. In future, whenever continuous heavy rains are forecast by the Met, the government should force companies to allow office employees to WFH (work from home).

This will avoid damage to vehicles, not to mention immense hardship to motorists. Do we have to wait until lives are lost during such floods before action is taken?

Oh sorry, 48 lives were lost when the cataclysmic floods of December 2021 hit the Klang Valley. Have we learned our lessons?

3) Enough is enough!

From October 2015 to September 2020, KL was hit by flash floods a whopping 48 times. That’s about 10 deluges per year, or almost one every month!

How can we claim to be a “negara maju” (advanced nation) when our capital is flooded every blessed time it rains “too heavily”?

It’s not as if Malaysia lies in some arid African savannah zone. We have an equatorial climate buffeted by monsoons. So we should have been prepared for this years, indeed, decades ago.

I remember back in 1997 when the world’s tallest buildings, the Twin Towers, were completed. It was so weird to look skywards in pride, only to have filthy floodwaters gathering around our knees. It was a symbol that our foundations were not right.

Now what? Are we supposed to gaze upwards at the world’s second-tallest building (KL 118) only to have floods rising around our legs every month?

4) The Smart tunnel

The Stormwater Management and Road Tunnel (Smart) was completed in 2007 at a cost of some RM2 billion. It was announced that this would rescue us from KL’s perpetual floods. So why is the city still being hit?

5) Basic town planning

KL is like a giant bowl surrounded by hills. This is what’s called the Klang Valley.

But as development spreads ever wider, more hard surfaces (roads and concrete) are created. So when it rains heavily, the water is not absorbed into the soil but runs off into drains. When the drainage system is overloaded… abracadabra, we get floods.

Now, this is not rocket science, it’s basic town planning. And it’s been talked about for decades. What happened?

6) Six flood retention ponds to be "developed"

That's what Segambut MP Hannah Yeoh revealed about KL City Hall's (DBKL) approvals between 2015 to 2020. This was also when 48 flash floods hit KL

Retention ponds “capture” the massive overflow from waters running off the hard surfaces I talked about earlier. The ponds act like a giant sponge that can “hold” (retain) water for a while, before releasing it gradually, thus reducing the “flash” overflows that cause floods.

However, land is precious in KL. Did some businessman give some “coffee money” to somebody, somewhere, to get his project passed? Was this why former Federal Territories Minister Tengku Adnan Mansor was initially found guilty of receiving a RM2 million bribe? (But he got off the hook when a higher court surprisingly decided that the money was not a “bribe” but a “political donation”.)

Perhaps this is why Yeoh urged the MACC to investigate the approvals to develop the six retention ponds. So, is poor town planning – influenced by “donations” – the root cause of why we have not solved KL’s recurring flood problem?

7) Common sense solutions

Our dear Environment Minister Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man talked about RM300 billion over the next 50 years to solve the nation’s flood problems.

I don’t know, maybe he plans to have many more super expensive Smart tunnels in KL and whatnots.

But here are some common-sense solutions from Global Environment Centre (GEC) director Faizal Parish. Firstly, have more forests (and greenery) in and around KL to absorb all that heavy rain. Second, clean the drains and deepen the rivers. Third, ban development from river buffer zones.

Yeoh adds, stop building houses in flood-prone areas. All these are simple solutions that do not require billions of ringgit.

Can it be done? Or do some people prefer to spend megabucks for reasons best known only to them?

8) Grassy car parks and rainwater harvesting

KL should require that all open-air car parks be partly covered by grass or sand. This is what we often see when we visit Singapore. The reason is obvious – to absorb heavy rainwaters into the earth before it “runs off” into drains and overloads the system.

We don't have enough of this, though I have seen concrete/grass car parks at the Puchong Jaya LRT station (see photo). There are also probably cheaper, easier methods such as heavy-duty plastic mesh.

If you have landed property, do your bit too. Please la… don’t cement and tile up your whole compound. Can you leave a bit of space for a garden? If you have no time to take care of plants, cover that area with small, loose rocks so that it can still absorb some water.

Another solution is for houses and commercial buildings to harvest rainwater. Once again, this will reduce hard surface “run off” – and you will also have spare water when taps go dry yet again! To encourage all this, local authorities should offer discounts on assessment rates.

No one in charge

The solutions to KL’s recurrent flood problems have been discussed many, many times before. They are not some high-tech mysteries. They are all about basics.

So, why can’t we do it? As usual, it boils down to political leadership. When we have an environment minister from PAS who is more focussed on the moral “sins” of Timah whisky than his job, then we are in trouble.

It doesn’t help either when the parties in the current ruling government – Umno, Bersatu and PAS – are busy attacking each other with dramatic “sumpah laknat” (oaths of damnation) and “ducks with broken legs” instead of running the country.

So it’s up to us to do our small bit – because nobody seems to be in charge upstairs. - Mkini

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ANDREW SIA is a veteran journalist who likes teh tarik khau kurang manis. You are welcome to give him ideas to brew at tehtarik@gmail.com.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.