Following last week’s flash floods that hit Kuala Lumpur as well as the Klang Valley, the authorities are looking for long term solutions to prevent the disaster from striking again. In a report by The Malay Mail, KL mayor Datuk Seri Mhd Amin Nordin Abdul Aziz said an underground waterway big enough to serve as an outlet for water to flow out of the city must be built.
“Heavy rainfall for two or three straight hours guarantee there will be an overflow of water because of our geographical location. We need a channel to divert the excess water from the city. A big underground waterway is a feasible solution,” said Amin. He also requested that the Department of Irrigation and Drainage bring the proposal up to the federal government as it is within its jurisdiction.
Recently, Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said that inefficient drainage systems in affected locations was the cause of flash floods occurring. Mhd Amin said it is possible to install water pumps in flood hotspots such as Jalan Bangsar, Jalan Pudu and Jalan Semantan, but such a move would not address the underlying problem.
“We installed four water pumps in Jalan Chan Sow Lin last year which solved the woes there, but not flooding in the Klang Valley as a whole. We need a solution which ensures every part of the city is ready to receive continuous rainfall with the intensity of more than 80 mm per hour,” he explained.
Adding to this, Mhd Amin wants the interconnected systems of existing tunnels, culverts and water retention ponds to be studied in order to improve its efficiency in preventing flash floods. “Study it, understand its mechanism. Only then we will know if it needs to be upgraded or more of it should be built,” he said.
According to Mhd Amin, DBKL would present a list of problems in KL and proposed solutions to Federal Territories Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Mansor. The proposal from DBKL is expected to be ready in a fortnight’s time.
Touching on the River of Life project, the KL mayor said the project was not aimed at preventing flash floods, but rather to clean up and beautify the dirty rivers in the Klang Valley, while developing the areas surrounding it. The project, estimated to be valued at around RM4 billion, is part of the transformation plan to enhance Kuala Lumpur’s liveability index, and may take two to three years to complete.
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This is rubbish.
KL have been there for ….. 100 years? and none of u – who are in power – is able to resolve this water thing?
waterways are there in KL, the only problem is they are mostly, in not all, clogged.
i tell u what mayor, give me a 10 billion grant, and i will settle all ur problem.
During the past 100 years, the rain went from heavy, to godlike, to epic, and now to scales never seen since biblical times. Things can never be fully expected just like in Orchard Road.
And even Rakyat won’t expect Corru..tion turn into “donation”!!! And Govt only knew how to implanted new “improved” AP system and Taxes BUT TOO BUSY TO HANDLE FLOOD ??!!
more flood more car damage… more car damage means more chance people go spend more or even go buy a new car… all these spending charge GST will generate even more and even more revenue for Najib… u think he will solve all this problem and reduce his pocket money? think again
I thought the millions ringgit Smart Tunnel was for this purpose?? Perhaps need somemore budget for another “Smarter” Tunnel again…p.s. toll charges have to be RM10 this time…
Smart tunnel on the other side…one tunnel is not enough to cover whole KL
world most expensive “longkang” that doesn`t work!!!
There is a popular saying, “prevention is better than cure”. What we see now is cure, and potentially expensive one.
lol @ potentially
it will most definitely going to be very expensive
This is all because of bad town planning. Our drains are too small and we do not have those underground sewarage system like in most develop countries.
When Lee Kuan Yew proposed such a system in Singapore, the opposition there cried a waste of money and etc. Today, Mr.Lee was proven right.
The question is, why did we not have similar system? The answer is because we do not have a proper town planning blueprint. They just build here and there, dig here and there, nothing is in a stright line, thus, it is now almost impossible to do it. Look at western countries, their cities are build in blocks, all straight line, like Old Ipoh, Old Melaka, Old Penang… all blocks and square.
Why we did not follow this grid system? This is because after 1969, Mahathir indirectly kicked out all the ‘White Man’ town planner in JKR. Those with no qualification took over the town planning job, thus began the nightmare.
Yes, prior to 1969, most town planners are white man.
Can KL ever solve this flooding problem? Almost impossible due to the lack of planning. There are too many tunnels here and there, all in weird angles and direction, how to dig a proper flooding tunnel? It will cost a bomb.
Thank you Mahathir, in the end, everyone suffers.
Yea, i agree with you, if you look at google map, those city are built in grid system. However, KL map is like roller coaster lol.
hadam dulu undang2 tanah baru boleh plan
Don’t blame others just to get your dissatisfaction upright. We need to look on at all aspect. KL town is overdeveloped where you’ve little space called green patch to absorb all this water. 50 years ago this has not happens even once a while the land/soil could absorb all this surface run off waters. Nowdays all the soils in KL filled with basement carpark where no soil could hold this run off water. Unless all public/landowners agreed for some relocation just like Shanghai did then the replanning will be in smoothh order. Just imagine to do MRT underground also people rioting for so called heritage/owner’s right even this will benefit mass people on easing the urban trnasportation and reducing carbon forrtprint.
Think wisely.
Excuses excuses. Other cities in the world also face public protests and poor legacy planning. There is nothing special about KL’s situation. Yet other cities can overcome them.
Tokyo, London, Seoul are not using grid system. It may work if the land is flat
This is good news for us and our bosses as we would get a huge fat juicy contract to build an underspec drainage system using the cheapest material but at a very premium price that only first world country would dare to quote, thank you to all DBKL taxpayers, our next few supercars are one step closer to our houses in bukit tunku
Hundreds of millions RM spent on so-called “lawatan kerja” to Europe, Middle East & USA. So what had they learn??
Founded in 1860.
Kuala Lumpur in 2016 is still Muddy as ever. :((
Kan dah kata, mashuuuk lagi… Kaya22222.
hahaha, our minister said because there are too much leaves clog up the longkang la. simple solution, chop all the trees la.
How about you get the Dutch their expertise ;)
The solution is simple. If Everyone throw the rubbish at correct places, this will never happen.
Ka-ching!!!
KL need new underground mayor instead..
If it’s an ineffective drainage system, then come up with solution on how to make it effective and efficient.
Want to build tunnels for car for what, end up driving underwater if there wasn’t any working drainage system available.
Where are all the bangla that they hired/plan to hire, get them to work cleaning the drains 24/7.
KL needs to fire this useless Mayor. Always give excuse this and that. Must be another makan gaji buta….
Mr.mayor, its called the smart tunnel. U mean its not efficient like the similarly named smart tag?
The government and and the people both failed the city. One can only hope this time, better planning and drainage plus rubbish disposal attitude among others will solve this problem in the near future. We can solve big problems and build the twin wonder of Petronas Towers but have not been able to protect the nation’s capital from floods? Please la… the very image of the nation is at stake.
2 billion (returned donation) could be have been used to solve this, no?
Its everybodys fault, the contractors, the drivers, the land, the rain, the British, people who throw rubbish from their cars.
Everybodys fault but DBKL…that one not their problem.
“Bodo dewan bandaraya tak reti nak selesaikan masalah banjir kilat blablabla….” while throwing kotak milo ke sungai gombak