Study actual cause of flood

IN the early hours of March 2, people living in low-lying areas in Kuching, Sarawak, woke up to find their homes flooded.

Heavy rain since midnight had caused flash floods in parts of the city, inundating roads and neighbourhoods and putting residents and motorists through inconvenience.

Among the badly-affected areas were Kampung Sinar Budi Baru and Taman Desa Wira, where over 400 people had to be evacuated to temporary relief centres.

According to Fire and Rescue Department personnel, who helped residents evacuate, many were caught off-guard by rising water at 4am.

The densely-populated Taman Malihah was another area badly hit by flash floods with about 500 people having to be evacuated.

This is the second time in less than a month that areas like Taman Desa Wira were flooded following heavy rain, with the previous occurrence on Feb 16.

In the wake of the latest floods, there was much talk of contributing factors and mitigation projects to address the problem.

However, the possible causes were only spoken about in general terms and ranged from inadequate drainage to climate change leading to unusual rainfall patterns.

Fire and Rescue Department personnel helping to evacuate residents of Kampung Sinar Budi Baru during the flash flood on March 2.

There was little mention of studying or identifying the actual causes of the floods for specific prevention measures to be put into place.

It is easy to blame climate change for excessive rain, but surely that also points to the need to take responsibility and action over what we can control in terms of preventing or mitigating floods.

To be fair, both Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof and Sarawak Deputy Premier Datuk Dr Sim Kui Hian spoke about a long-term mitigation project following the March 2 floods.

Fadillah said a canal would be constructed to divert water from Sungai Sarawak to Batang Salak as part of a proposed flood mitigation project.

This would divide the water volume so that it would not be concentrated in Sungai Sarawak alone, he said.

According to Fadillah, the canal is being designed by the Sarawak Drainage and Irrigation Department, where after the tendering process, the project can hopefully begin next year.

He also said the flood mitigation project would be carried out in phases, depending on the availability of funds.

Similarly, Dr Sim said the canal was a long-term project to deal with overflow from Sungai Sarawak.

He also said that it would not be the only solution needed, as local factors of flooding needed to be addressed as well.

While plans for long-term mitigation projects are welcome, they are still a long way from being implemented and completed.

In the meantime, other measures can be put in place, such as improving drainage systems in flood-prone areas.

Surely this is something that the local authorities and relevant agencies can look into and work together on, to prevent drains from filling up quickly and overflowing whenever it rains just a little more heavily than normal.

At the same time, the mitigation plans should take into account the actual causes of flooding in order to tackle the problem effectively.

We don’t want large sums of public money to be spent on a project that ultimately doesn’t do its job to prevent flooding.

In the end, political will is needed to resolve the flooding problem as a matter of urgency – to identify causes and solutions, to design effective mitigation plans and to get the necessary funds to implement them speedily and satisfactorily.

Until then, people in flood-prone areas will continue to live in anxiety every time there is prolonged heavy rain.