Integrated flood plan needed

Still flooded: Water was still ankle-deep at Taman Langat Murni, Banting, Selangor, yesterday afternoon. — SAMUEL ONG/The Star

THE recent major floods in the Klang Valley have raised questions about disaster preparedness and flood management. Malaysia needs a comprehensive integrated flood management (IFM) plan to address the challenges of mitigating and preventing floods in the long-term.

IFM is necessary to integrate land and water management with river basin management, and to integrate structural flood control measures (eg, flood walls and bunds) and non-structural measures (eg, land use zoning for flood detention storage). IFM would inform a national policy to manage, mitigate and prevent floods within a sustainable and economical framework. There is also a need to understand that it is not feasible to stop all land socioeconomic development in flood plains; at the same time, designing an absolutely flood-free system is also not economical feasible.