Klang Valley Devastated By Floods. Again. Seriously?

Monday, March 7th, 2022 was an especially wet day with near-constant rain in most parts of the Klang Valley, but things took a turn for the worst closer to the evening as the downpour got heavier.

Eventually, water levels started to rise to concerning levels in several major metropolitan areas and before long the situation turned into a full-flown flood emergency. Homes were filled with silty water, thousands of motorists were stranded in and around their submerged vehicles, and chaos ensued.

Among the hardest-hit areas included Jalan Chan Show Lin, Jalan Tun Razak, Jalan Kia Peng, Jalan Raja Chulan, Jalan Kuching, and Jalan Raja Laut with the major rivers - Sungai Klang, Sungai Gombak, Sungai Batu - having overflowed at multiple points due to the high volume of rain.

Meanwhile, the Malaysian Highway Authority confirmed that several highways were also severely impacted by the floods with high water blocking lanes along the Besraya Expressway from the city center to Salak Selatan, from Kuchai to Salak Jaya, and from Kampung Malaysia to Kuchai.

It also caused the closure of four lanes of the Kesas Expressway, leaving only one lane usable on the westbound side at kilometre 48 towards the Sukom interchange.

Of course, the SMART Tunnel was deployed to help evacuate some of the floodwaters, but it seems that this happened only after the bulk of the flooding had occurred.

Why does this keep happening? It would seem that the government was just as ill-prepared for yesterday’s floods as it was for the one that hit the Klang Valley in late December 2021 in addition to leaving a trail of destruction across areas along the eastern coast of Peninsula Malaysia.

Has there been no progress in improving the flood mitigation measures following last year’s disaster? What about the state of the drainage system in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor? What about any advanced warning by the Malaysian MET Department to give Malaysians time to prepare?

Perhaps this is what happens when Klang Valley residents have to contend with having more shopping malls and huge apartment complexes being built all the time instead of those resources being spent on proper infrastructure (drainage) and city planning.