KLANG residents are mulling a lawsuit against Putrajaya for dereliction of duty during the December floods last year its lawmaker Charles Santiago said.

Santiago said Putrajaya has the responsibility to protect and promote the rights and interests of its citizens during the floods, where there was hardly an early warning system or efficient flood relief efforts.

“In fact, government officials were missing in the first three to four days, and people took it upon themselves to organise food distributions and rescue missions,” he said in a statement today.

In the floods last year, 59 people were killed in one of the worst natural disasters recorded in Malaysia.

States that were badly affected were Selangor, Johor, Pahang and Negri Sembilan.

According to the DAP MP, the decision to take the government to court was made during a seminar titled “The Impact of Climate Change on Coastal Areas Like Klang”, held yesterday.

Santiago said participants, during discussions, raised the possibility of the formulation of a new drainage and irrigation system for Klang.

“This would involve inter-phasing the movement of water through rivers,” he said.

Yesterday, Santiago told the seminar that he had asked for RM6million from the public works department to clean up all the drains in his constituency.

However the response he received from the works minister left him disappointed.

“I asked the Works Minister Fadillah Yusof last December and his answer was “why don’t you try gotong-royong?’” he said.

Santiago said Klang residents wanted the National Disaster Management Agency (Nadma) to be shut down and replaced by a disaster relief force, with a national legislative framework in flood management. 

The three term MP said the move to replace Nadma would entail a comprehensive piece of legislation to unify the various laws and regulations, including policies and programmes to reduce flood-related risks. 

“Currently, the country’s flood relief and recovery efforts are organised under National Security Council Directive No. 20, where eight laws and regulations are invoked when responding to a disaster.”

“This approach needs to be changed. Countries with integrated legislations to reduce disaster risks have had major success in the overall management of floods and disasters.”

“The government needs to consider setting up a disaster relief force, constituting members of the police, army and air force that can be deployed when confronted with a disaster.”

“The cost of setting up this outfit would not be astronomical as they come from the existing security and defence forces,” said Santiago.

He added the government must not down play the urgency as some areas in Klang have experienced floods five times over the last six months.

“Instead of seriously looking at mitigation factors, the government is down playing the urgency on the ground.”

“It must stop manufacturing flood insecurity and act immediately before another flood disaster strikes,” he stressed. – April 3, 2022.