KUALA LUMPUR, May 18 ― Renowned town planner Goh Hock Guan is suggesting the formation of a multi-agency task force led by City Hall and including specific local councils in the Klang Valley to tackle flash floods that have paralysed parts of the federal capital “once and for all”.
The architect, who had a hand in the Kuala Lumpur Master Plan besides planning Subang Jaya as a township, said a coordinated effort that would look at causative factors on the periphery of the city may be the answer to the problem that has plagued the city in recent years.
“We cannot do it in dribs and drabs. The powers-that-be need to bring together relevant agencies to resolve the problem of flash floods once and for all if they want Kuala Lumpur to become a world-class city,” he said in an interview.
Goh said the independent authority should look at Greater Kuala Lumpur in a comprehensive review of clearing of forests, siltation, excessive urban development and drainage.
“The authority, to be led by City Hall, should include the Drainage and Irrigation Department and local authorities in the peripheries where some of the factors that cause flash floods in Kuala Lumpur are to be found,” said the architect who urged City Hall to study how Bangkok had overcome flash floods.
Goh, who had suggested the formation of such an authority years ago to the authorities, said Bangkok once had the worst flash floods in the region but had overcome them with judicious use of pumps to divert flood water from flood-prone areas during the wet season.
He said City Hall needed to increase the number of pumps in use besides building more storm tunnels to accommodate flash waters.
“Even though Bangkok is located on flat terrain at the mouth of a large river, they have resolved the problem in a matter of years. They have seven storm tunnels which help when flash floods hit. Let’s look at their system.
“In the Klang Valley, we have hills and valleys which should make drainage of flood waters much easier,” added the man who created master plans for, among others, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Danang in Vietnam and Davao, Philippines.
Goh said developers in and around the city had a crucial role to play as well by working with each other as part of a master flood mitigation plan.
“They have to work together along with their engineers and architects. If not, they will be pulling in different directions and this will not help solve the problem of flash floods,’ he said.
On the River of Life project in the city aimed at turning rivers into engines of economic growth, he said it would also help clean up garbage that made rivers shallow and unable to contain run-off from heavy rainfall.
Flash floods have created havoc in the city in recent years with one of the worst occurring last Thursday with more than 100 cars submerged and traffic brought to a halt in several areas.
