KL Likely Submerged If Not For SMART Tunnel

Klang Valley, by virtue of it being a valley, certainly faced the brunt of last weekend’s heavy downpour, but the situation in Kuala Lumpur might have been far worse if not for the SMART Tunnel.

The water diversion system was activated and placed on Mode 4 at 7:45 pm on December 18th until 12 pm, December 20th - more than 40 hours later - drawing water away from Sungai Klang and Sungai Ampang into the Taman Desa reservoir.

In that time, the Stormwater Management and Road Tunnel (SMART) was responsible for diverting 5 billion (BILLION!) litres of water (or 5 million cubic metres of H2O) from entering the nation’s largest and most densely populated city, as confirmed by Water and Environment Ministry (KASA) secretary-general Datuk Seri Dr Zaini Ujang.

No diversion exercise in the tunnel’s history was ever carried out in Mode 4 that exceeded the 3-hour mark. Construction began in late 2003, but since its opening in 2007, the system has been invaluable in preventing floods by diverting water into the 9.7km bypass tunnel.

However, though it greatly mitigated the damage done, it was not enough to spare the city entirely from the effects of last weekend’s flooding with numerous areas still finding themselves submerged before long. Among the more shocking were the images of housing areas reduced to mere rooftops.  

The freak floods that ravaged many states in Malaysia certainly caught us off-guard and ill-prepared for the sheer volume of rising water that would wreak havoc on so many local communities and lives, the result of the Tropical Depression 29W that formed in the South China Sea last week.

Nearly all of Peninsula Malaysia was hit with incessant rainfall as early as December 16th, continuing (without pause in some areas) until the evening of December 19th. In states west of Banjaran Titiwagsa where most of the population resides, it was a particularly rude awakening from the clear blue skies usually expected at this time of year.

Dr Zaini also said that the sheer volume of water seen unloaded over Kuala Lumpur alone over this past weekend was more than the average rainfall experienced by the city in an entire month, adding that this occurrence is well beyond expectations and “only occurs once every 100 years.”

Currently, many areas in Malaysia remain in crisis and are yet to recover from the damaging effects of the resulting flood, so far causing astronomical amounts of damage to property and infrastructure.

Crucially, it has caused unquantifiable suffering and emotional toll on the people that were unfortunately caught in the water’s path, causing thousands of homes to be evacuated while stricken motorists were either stranded or forced to abandon their vehicles.