IPOH, Dec 3 — Unusually heavy rain that continued for more than 13 hours with rainfall reaching 92.5 millimetres (mm) per hour at the Ulu Kinta Dam was the cause of the flash floods at Arena Kepayang Putra, Fair Park here, on December 1.

Housing and Local Government Minister Nga Kor Ming said this was based on an initial report issued by the Malaysian Meteorological Department (MetMalaysia) and the Ipoh City Council (MBI).

"The results of initial investigations by the Ipoh City Council and the Malaysian Fire and Rescue Department (JBPM) showed that continuous rain around Ipoh since Saturday had caused the water level of the Kinta River to rise sharply.

"The next day, the continuous rain caused the river water to overflow into residential areas, affecting about 200 households in the Arena Kepayang Putra and Fair Park areas,” he said in a statement today.

On Dec 1, residents and rescue teams had to wade through water filled with garbage and oil to help evacuate victims stranded by the flood, in addition to the flash floods that occurred in the area being described as the worst in the past 30 years.

Therefore, Nga, who is the state assemblyman for Kepayang, said the government was considering a proposal to upgrade the river embankment along the Kinta River as a long-term solution to address the risk of flooding due to increasingly serious climate change.

Nga said the DAP, JBPM and MBI service teams had taken immediate action to carry out clean-up operations after the flood waters had completely receded today.

He said based on the rainfall intensity category under the Irrigation and Drainage Department, rainfall exceeding 60mm per hour was classified as very heavy rain with more than 60mm of rain within two to four hours causing flash floods.

"The Kinta area also recorded monthly rainfall that exceeded the long-term average in November with a total of 370.2 mm compared to the average of 298.5 mm.

"To prevent such incidents, the federal government has approved RM108.5 million for the flood mitigation project in Sungai Kinta/Kampar,” he said. — Bernama