Thursday, November 24, 2016

Puddles on the roads

“Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add colour to my sunset sky.” It sounds romantic if what poet and playwright Rabindranath Tagore wrote is taken literally, but not so for the clouds over Kuala Lumpur and elsewhere in the past week, which were an indicator of rainstorms, that, more often than not, brought about heavy rain, floods and massive traffic jams.
Some of us, if not all, know of people who have had experienced being caught in such situations during a downpour. 
My first experience with floods was when I was schooling at Convent Johor Baru. Heavy rain and high tide had caused Jalan Yahya Awal to be flooded. Back then, my late father and I had this understanding that whenever Jalan Yahya Awal is flooded, I was to wait for him at the back gate of the school. 
The only other time I got trapped in a flash flood was in Kuala Lumpur in the late 1980s. I remember having to wade through knee-high, dirty water late one night at Jalan Pahang, enroute to Danau Kota where I was living back then. I had just left the office as it had rained heavily earlier but it didn’t cross my mind that water had risen in some parts of the city. 
The cab driver saw that the road ahead after the Courts Mammoth building in Setapak was already submerged, but he didn’t think the water was too high to pass through. 
As we hit the water, the car engine spluttered and eventually stalled. Water quickly seeped in. The cabbie asked me to get out of the car and wait for him on the curb. As I opened the door of the car, water rushed in. 
The driver joined me on the curb after he called over the radio for a replacement cab to take me home. 
I have been in Kuala Lumpur for the past 30-odd years, and I can personally tell you that the city has never overcome its flood problems despite the introduction of the Stormwater Management and Road Tunnel (SMART Tunnel) in 2003. 
A civil engineering-trained friend said most of our roads are not “flood-friendly”, in that when it rains, the water does not flow into the drains. “That is why we’ll get puddles of water on the road,” he explained. 
Even our highways are flooded at times. Besides the so-called flaw in the construction of our roads, the blockages in the drains are also causing the floods. 
I just have to look at Jalan Liku in Bangsar where my office is. A heavy downpour for an hour or so will see water rising up to one metre high. After the water recedes, you'll see all kinds of rubbish on the road, such as twigs and branches of trees, plastic bottles, dead critters and other stuff. 
Although the public needs to be educated to keep the environment clean, the authorities concerned must also ensure that the drains are maintained for water to flow freely. The local authorities and the ministries concerned must make sure that this is done. 
I used to listen to my late father rant about this back when we got caught in the flood on the way home from school. He thought that local councillors and officers of agencies concerned should be out and about in the rain to see for themselves the clogged drains and the flood-prone areas. 
Only then would they know how serious the problem was, and is. This year, the Malaysian Meteorological Department has forecast rainfall from the second week of this month, with more heavy rain from next month to January. Massive floods are likely if there is continuous rainfall. 
The department categorised rain in three categories: yellow (where heavy rain is expected to occur within one to three days); orange (occasionally moderate rain of 0.5-4mm/hour for more than one day) and red (moderate rain turn to heavy downpour with accumulated rainfall expected to reach 100mm/day). 
Rain is also expected to be continuous for one day. It was reported that the government established the National Disaster Relief Committee under the National Security Council (NSC) in 1972 with the task of coordinating flood relief operations at national, state and district levels with a view to prevent loss of human lives and to reduce flood damage. 
The NSC confirmed that the December 2014-January 2015 floods were the worst in the history of the country, where 21 people were killed and more than 200,000 lost their homes with damages estimated at RM1 billion. 
Over the past few years, I had gone on flood relief missions in several states. My team had driven through waist-high flood waters to get to affected villages. We went to schools and community halls, which had been converted into temporary relief centres. Some victims sought refuge at mosques and surau. 
One temporary relief centre we visited was also flooded, where the water was knee-high. Wherever we went, we found food in abundance, but basic stuff like toiletries were scarce. These victims and their families fled their homes with only the clothes on their backs. 
The first time I volunteered on the mission, it was pretty hard for me. While I was ready for the hard work during the mission, I wasn't emotionally prepared for it. But, I cannot compare that to what the victims and their families had gone through, especially those who lost their loved ones. 
The psychological impact can be long-lasting. I am hopeful that we are ready to face the floods and are better prepared this time around to help the flood victims. Let us also pray for this year’s monsoon season to be kinder on all of us.​

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