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Who Caused The Flash Floods In Kuala Lumpur?

The flash floods in Kuala Lumpur last week one should expect more frequently in the future. It is Nature's revenge. Anyone who defies Nature must pay a terrible price. But the government believes it can second guess it. When parts of Kuala Lumpur was submerged in water, it was an early warning signal of the wreckage Nature can cause when defied. Even the environment ministry believes Nature can be trifled with: Look at the Bakun dam, whose long term environmental damage must take second place to greed. Look at Kuantan Port. It was built on a site chosen for political reasons, and nature wrecked a terrible price: it cost as much to repair it as to build it. And it is still not used as it was meant to be.

The flash floods came when the Gombak River overflew its banks at high tide, helped by the jetsam and flotsam collected around the huge pylons on the river for the privatised highway above; and compounded by an authoritarian belief that all would be okay if it does nothing to clear the debris that floats in it. Maintenance is privatised, and is haphazard. The newspapers today is full of photographs of the terrible state of the river. No explanation is given why it is in this condition, although people are blamed for it. When you do not collect rubbish as regularly as City Hall once did, and municipal services are privatised, something must give. It is no use talking of cleaning up the rivers nationwide, when local rivers are left as dirty and full of rubbish and debris. A national policy can only work if it oversees the details. In Malaysia, there is no attention to detail. Nothing will come out of it.

The national flood prevention scheme, like the problem of squatters after the Kampung Medan clashes in Petaling Jaya, is a frightening indictment of government's long-term planning. A national policy is formulated when what it has ignored over the years bursts into the public eye. There would not be, I dare say, a national policy on squatters without Kampung Medan and a national flood policy without last week's floods. We are so busy building castles in the air to be bothered about cracks on the roads. And cry found when the cracks widen into an unrepairable chasm.

The government believes that its work is best done by the private sector. If it is done with due diligence and one the basis of competitive tenders, it would not be so bad. It seems to me that the contracts are given to those close to the establishment with no experience in handling the work privatised. The cleanup of the Klang River along Shah Alam is about to be privatised, the contractor doing it in return for the lucrative land along its banks. This belief that the contractor would genuinely do a good job is misplaced. He is not a flood alleviation expert. Look at the condition of the stadia Malaysian private enterprise built for the Commonwealth Games in 1998. They were built in exchange for rich land in the Klang Valley. Makeshift facilities were built for the land. Nothing more, nothing less. And so in making money out of the privatisation exercises.

One quick fix done in Kuala Lumpur is to cut down trees. Trees in tropical countries absorb as much as 25 per cent of its bodyweight in water, and releases them gradually. This helps prevent all but the worst floods. The trees that once graced Kuala Lumpur only 30 years ago are no more. When trees are cut, silt fills up rivers and constant dredging is needed to keep the river flowing. This is all but ignored. Compounding this is the poor planning and the belief that anything privatised works well, and the need to build at whatever cost takes precedence over people's needs. So, everything within sight is privatised, and if the present is any guide to the future, the government would buy it back to prevent the contractors going bankrupt.

The flash floods would make the crazy Linear City along the Klang River moot. If one is built and rivers tended as badly as now, it would make the life of the people in Kuala Lumpur worse. Mercifully, it looks as if the man who has the contract is so immured in his own problems that it would not go any further. Nature is a good friend but a fearsome enemy. But the government felt it could cheat Nature, and we now pay the price. If nothing is done to correct it, Kuala Lumpur must brace itself for more and more floods as worse as last week's more often. That it is already compared to the floods of 1926 and 1971 frightens. Nature let off steam, as it were, in 1926 and 1971; last week's floods the fallout from defying nature.

What is curious about this flood is that no official was on hand to explain what happened. People were left to their own devices, and the explanations only came after it was all over. This suggests the authorities were caught flatfooted. The thousands of cars caught in the rising waters is a harbinger of what is to come if serious remedial works is put in place. But City Hall is not about to do that. When it cannot provide normal municipal services, how can it look at the long-term remedial works that must be done. It is neglect, arrogance, refusal to understand Nature, the misplaced belief in privatisation as in Malaysia all contribute to the floods. There is nothing in the horizon to suggest better times are head. More flash floods, not necessarily as last week in the city centre, are on the cards.

M.G.G. Pillai
pillai@mgg.pc.my