IPOH: The sight of overcast skies is enough to send shivers down Taman Cempaka resident Jack Chan’s spine.
Having already experienced flash floods three times this year, the 77-year-old retired manager said the incidents have traumatised his family.
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“It has been raining quite a lot these days. We are not scared of the rain but more of the clean up after a flash flood,” he said when contacted.
“The murky drain water that flows into our home is smelly and it is tiring to clean up. There isn’t much we can do but just pray that it will not flood whenever it rains,” he added.
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Heavy rain and sometimes thunderstorms, continue to fall in various part of the state.
Several districts have already experienced flash floods, including Kinta, Hilir Perak, Muallim and Batang Padang since May.
A check on the Meteorological Department website showed that Perak will experience rain in most districts this week. Only Muallim is expected to see sunny days starting Thursday.
Chan said the flash floods in his residential area took a turn for the worse last year.
“Before that, there was still some flooding but flood water never entered our homes. I believe it has something to do with the high wall that was built along the monsoon drain,” he said.
Canning assemblyman Jenny Choy said she had a meeting with various agencies yesterday to resolve the flash floods in the area.
With no sign of the rainfall stopping, Choy said Taman Cempaka was in need of a solution as the residential area had been hit by flash floods four times since December last year.
“The Drainage and Irrigation Department is already working to widen three stretches of Sungai Pinji but the residential area is still inundated.
“I believe that there needs to be a way to divert less water into the river in the area,” she said, adding that she has asked the Ipoh City Council to come up with a report on how they can do it.
“For the long-term, there needs to be a retention pond built in the area,” she added.
Sahabat Alam Malaysia field officer Meor Razak Meor Abdul Rahman has urged the government to do more to preserve forested areas, especially those in Environmentally Sensitive Areas, to minimise the impact of climate change.
He said natural disasters like floods or landslides can be prevented if less forested areas are developed.
