KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 31 — Development sites along the Federal Highway were the cause of yesterday’s flash floods in the national capital, Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said today.
He added that the amount of rainfall in the city yesterday between 1pm and 4pm could have been comfortably if it were not for the silt that flowed out from the construction sites and clogged up the existing drainage channels.
“The river also had a half a metre margin left; it was not overflowing. The floods were caused due to mud and debris at the development site,” Wan Junaidi told a news conference in Parliament here.
He added that the developers probably did not prepare retention ponds on site.
The flash flood inundated the Federal Highway near the Bangsar South development site, reducing five-lane traffic to just a single lane.
Wan Junaidi also said that the Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) should investigate if the developers or contractors at the development sites failed to comply with the conditions of the project approval by not preparing a retention pond on site.
Wan Junaidi pointed out that any project approved after August 2015 were made to obtain approval from the Department of Environment (DoE), while projects approved prior were solely under the discretion of local councils.
“So we have to check now if the project was approved before August 2015 or after. If it was approved after, both DBKL and DoE can take action against the developers,” he said.
He said that most local councils have their own by-laws and discretion in approving a project, and DBKL must ascertain if conditions that came with their approval was being adhered to by the developer.
