GEORGE TOWN: A field surrounded by one-storey homes now hides an underground flood retention system capable of holding more than 5,000 cubic metres of stormwater, enough to fill 250 water tanker lorries.
The flood retention system was completed last month, just in time for the inter-monsoon and upcoming south-west monsoon rainy seasons.
Located in Solok Van Praagh in Jelutong, at the southern edge of the densest zone of the city, it is now a crucial facility for mitigating floods in the area.
Batu Lanchang assemblyman Ong Ah Teong said the top of the underground system remained an open field for residents to use.
It was completed in March at a cost of RM5.9mil.
“It has two retention tanks with a combined capacity of 5,175 cubic metres, equal to 2.1 Olympic-size swimming pools,” he said, adding that construction began in June 2022 and took nearly four years to complete.
Ong said the system would collect stormwater and pump it out to the sea, which is 2km away.
“Extreme rainfall can still overwhelm the system, but we have seen a clear reduction in flooding even during the construction period.
“Now that it is fully operational, we are certain it will solve flooding problems in a wide section of George Town,” he added.
Housewife Yeoh Bee Choo, 58, said floods were once the norm after downpours.
“Every time it rained, I had to move things around the house. Sometimes it just reached the step outside, other times water came in a few centimetres,” she said.
“In 2017, it went up to about two feet (0.6m). Our cars were flooded.”
She said she used cloth and towels to slow down water entering through the door and kept electrical items high off the ground.
“These past few years, while they were building this, it has been good. No flooding at all. Now I don’t panic when it rains,” she said.
Ah Hiok, 77, who has visited the Lean Hua Tean temple in the area for over 60 years, said floods used to hit more than six times a year.
“Water could go above knee-level because the temple sits on lower ground. We would all come out to clean up,” she said.
“Now we feel relieved. For the past three years, there has not been any flooding,” he said.
