WHEN floods hit a few states in Peninsular Malaysia in December last year, part of the reassurance given by the authorities was that this was a one-off, a rare phenomenon that occurs once every 100 years.

Not even 100 days has passed, and Kuala Lumpur and parts of Selangor were hit by a series of smaller, shorter floods, with alerts raised for more to come in the next few days.

The costly, emotionally draining and increasingly common cycle and now-anticipated responses are becoming tiresome.

Common sense, generic advice like “head for high ground”, “stay in your office”, “leave your vehicles” and so on are becoming less and less relevant, as the affected areas grow larger, the water levels rise higher and the number of “safe” spaces in the city centre run out. 

There needs to be a decisive, serious, concerted response to this problem. Soon.

Although exact rainfall patterns are difficult to predict, a rising trend can be seen, beyond the anecdotal. 

Anticipating the “unusual” should be the new norm. Arguments that these are abnormal rainfall patterns do not hold water, especially if they occur every so often. 

The situation is already partially mitigated, albeit inadvertently, by the reduced number of cars due to ongoing work from home arrangements, Covid quarantines, reduced crowds in public areas, and a similarly reduced capacity in educational centres.

Should the city centre have experienced a busier day, for example, on a regular pre-Raya shopping rush, the damage would have been worse, as more vehicles and movement would have left a higher level of displaced water, as would have a few more millimetres of rainfall.

Pluvial, or rainfall-based flooding therefore, will form part and parcel of city life sooner rather than later.

Deforestation, despite the many denials, most certainly plays a part. Sarawak hosts 1,300mm more rainfall than the similar-sized peninsula.

Sabah handles a few hundred more millimetres without major flood incidents, and while the rainfall on the peninsula has been pretty standard at 2,500mm a year, the patterns have concentrated on certain months.

There needs to be a holistic approach: city planning, meteorological and climate pattern studies, environmental impact assessment, and coastal line studies.

For too long, Malaysia has taken a rather lax approach to this, compared to our neighbours.

Jakarta has engaged in large flood mitigation from the 2010s, involving billions of dollars and partially financed by the World Bank.

There are also multi-regional plans in place involving rehabilitation of waterways, rationalisation of land utilisation and construction of a new capital, many of these due to be complete by 2025.

Singapore conducts careful city planning and incorporates multi-pronged approaches, running smart systems to manage their 8,000km network of underground drains and irrigation.

At least 30% of Singapore is just 5m above sea level, and any major flooding event, if unmanaged, could easily destroy the island-state. 

In contrast, Malaysia has recently only mostly published guidelines and warnings, and only minor projects, involving water diversion and pumps.

The last major projects were the widening and deepening of drains under the River of Life project, stormwater management mitigation projects under the Najib administration and the planned construction of the SMART tunnel in the early 1990s.

Since the December floods that cost Selangor and Kuala Lumpur billions in infrastructure damage, not including the personal and corporate losses, no plan has yet to be tabled publicly on preventive steps, until the recent floods, apart from repairing faulty equipment that should have been working in the first place.

Instead of focusing our resources on things like outriders for our political leaders and elections to consolidate power for certain parties, perhaps more energy should be spent on where it matters: lives and livelihoods and the cost they incur. – March 9, 2022.

* Emmanuel Joseph firmly believes that Klang is the best place on Earth, and that motivated people can do far more good than any leader with motive.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.