Flood mitigation
Enough planning, get on with the doing
THE rising mercury and hydration advisories over this past week herald in the southwest monsoon, which arrives officially tomorrow. With it, Malaysians can expect higher energy bills, and probably more water cuts — never welcome things. But, if there is one thing that the drought promises that will be greeted with gratefulness, it is that there will be lower rainfall in the country; and that, hopefully, will mean fewer floods. For now. The unusually long wet season has been extremely unkind to those living and working in low-lying areas of the country. Coupled with insufficient flood mitigation measures and poor governmental response, the floods of late-2021 and of March and April this year will not be easily forgotten. Not by the common man, anyway.
News that the Public Works Institute of Malaysia (Ikram) is embarking on a year-long study on Kuala Lumpur’s overall drainage system, and Kuala Lumpur City Hall’s plans to implement interim measures in the meantime, will therefore give some balm to the wounded — provided that all these plans actually translate to action on the ground, and soon. When this newspaper last commented in March on the government’s and City Hall’s plans, the plans were still very much in the “promises” stage. However, Ikram’s inventory will take a year to complete, before presumably, another plan is promised, to take action based on the assessment. In the meantime, City Hall will implement the KL Flash Floods Mitigation Action 2022, to reduce the severity of flash floods and prevent losses and damage to properties. Among its interim measures will be a daily cleaning of drains, removal of obstructions, de-silting flood retention ponds, proper maintenance of on-site stormwater retention tanks, upgrading scupper drains, building new sumps and applying water-absorbent stone mastic asphalt for road resurfacing and at public areas.
All this sounds very good on paper. But, why must Malaysia always take the “better late than never” approach to disaster management? Especially since the “late” always comes after the fact when the populace is buzzing with rage, and have to be urgently appeased because it’s an election year? City Hall raised its assessment rates some six years ago. What have the assessment fees been spent on? Many of the drains that Ikram will be assessing are thought to be as old as City Hall itself, which means that a complete overhaul of the drainage system will likely be needed. And given that it rains almost every day in Malaysia, why aren’t the drains cleaned daily? Each season has its own promise; and the rainy season brings with it heavy rainfall. But, that does not mean that heavy rainfall has to result in floods — not if sufficient measures have been taken to prevent the accumulation of water in all the wrong areas. Good management would have ensured that these mitigation measures are already an on-going practice. At the very least, the planning of them should have begun the moment City Hall decided to sell off 54.49 per cent of Kuala Lumpur’s retention pond acreage for private development. Since none of these unwise decisions are likely to be undone, let us pray that City Hall will make the most of the reduced rainfall right now, so that the opportunity to do flood mitigation works will not be squandered, again.
All this sounds very good on paper. But, why must Malaysia always take the ‘better late than never’ approach to disaster management?