KUALA Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) has been given five days to furnish city folk with its flood mitigation plans for the monsoon season or face legal action. 

Lawyer Ambiga Sreenevasan, together with seven residents, had sent a letter of demand to Federal Territories Minister Shahidan Kassim and Kuala Lumpur mayor Mahadi Che Ngah on Monday. 

The letter of demand was submitted through the law firm Messrs Lim Wei Jiet.

The residents want information from DBKL on whether there are sufficient plans in place to tackle floods if it occurs during the monsoon season. 

They said that such transparency of information is crucial for public awareness and to enable public participation which, in turn, is a cornerstone of good public policymaking.

“This is especially important for an issue as serious as floods, which has caused untold destruction to lives, livelihoods and property in KL in the past.

“The right to information is also intertwined with every person’s right to a clean, healthy, safe and sustainable environment, and in light of the coming monsoon season, which starts in November,” they said in the letter.

The residents said that according to the Auditor-General’s Report published last month only eight out of 104 flood mitigation measures proposed in the 2017 masterplan have been implemented or are in the process of implementation by DBKL.

“DBKL’s response to the auditor-general was that another 22 flood mitigation measures would be implemented this year. 

“Hence, KL residents request to know the current status of the said 22 flood mitigation measures,” the residents said in the letter.

They also said the auditor-general had identified five short-term mitigation measures proposed in the flood masterplan that had not been implemented in highly flood-prone areas encompassing Jalan Tun Razak, Persiaran Ampang Hilir and Jalan U-Thant as of March this year. 

The residents want updates on what mitigation measures have been implemented in those areas listed since March and what other plans DBKL has implemented.  

Last week, Environment and Water Minister Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man said the government was rolling out a RM300 million flood mitigation project in Kuala Lumpur to prepare for floods in the coming months. – September 21, 2022.