KUALA LUMPUR, April 26 — Both Federal Territories Minister Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim and Environment and Water Minister Datuk Seri Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man must explain why residents in the national capital face recurring flash floods in spite of the large-scale prevention efforts poured into addressing the problem.
Kepong MP Lim Lip Eng called out the two ministers, saying there has been very little public information to date on the flood mitigation projects despite the millions of ringgit allocated.
“Yesterday, the City of Kuala Lumpur has turned into the City of Mud once again, no thanks to the Ministry of Federal Territories and the Ministry of Environment and Water for its failure to address the flash flood problem.
“Enough is enough! The December flood last year was supposed to be bad enough, but yesterday’s flood was even worse. And for this to happen within the span of less than four months, it raises concerns to KLites,” Lim said in a statement today.
Yesterday’s heavy rains in the afternoon just ahead of the evening rush hour caused widespread flooding in various parts of Kuala Lumpur and heavy traffic congestion on over 10 major roads.
Lim, who is also DAP’s National Public Complaints Bureau chairman, said that even though heavy rains aren’t considered an environmental disaster, the flash floods that follow are.
“For this, we want the Minister of Federal Territories, Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim and the Minister of Environment and Water, Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man to explain to the flash flood victims why the two ministries have not been effective in preventing flash floods, if all the flood mitigation projects have been successfully carried out,” he added.
The Opposition lawmaker said the flood situation will continue to worsen with KLites forced to bear the damages if development continues at the current pace.
He insisted that Kuala Lumpur needs sustainable development more than more highrises.
“Every time when there is a heavy downpour for not even half an hour, KLites are already not spared of the massive floods. Their cars will have to go through a major repair. Homes will have to be cleaned up.
“For each flood, loss of properties comes out to be in the millions,” he said.
Local business paper The Edge reported yesterday that eight companies have put in separate proposals ranging between RM5 billion and RM15 billion to the government for a flood mitigation project west of the Klang Valley.
The eight proposals that were sent directly to the Prime Minister’s Office include some big names in the construction industry such as Gamuda Bhd, IJM Corp Bhd and Malaysian Resources Corp Bhd.
The Klang Valley experienced one of its worst flash floods in recent history last December.
Kuala Lumpur, Shah Alam, and Klang were among some of the worst hit. The year-end floods saw 25 deaths, thousands of residents displaced from their homes, and caused damages worth RM3.1 billion in Selangor alone.
On January 17, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Economy) Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed said Malaysia is estimated to have suffered total losses of between RM5.3 billion and RM6.5 billion so far due to the recent flood emergency that hit the Klang Valley and multiple states in the country.
On March 4, the federal government announced an additional RM15 billion for flood mitigation projects between 2023 and 2030, with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob saying the Cabinet decided to approve the budget in light of the recent floods.
This was a massive increase from the RM1 billion that had been set aside for mitigation projects under the 12th Malaysia Plan.
On March 7, Deputy Federal Territories Minister Datuk Seri Jalaluddin Alias said that the ministry would meet with the Kuala Lumpur City Hall to find the best solutions to resolve flash flooding in the national capital.
