When history floods back

Kuala Lumpur has been hit by a spate of flash floods in recent months. — Filepic

HISTORY has a way of haunting cities that assume the lessons have ended.

Looking at Kuala Lumpur today brings both pride and unease.

The city has grown taller, denser and far more connected.

Skyscrapers dominate the skyline while highways and rail lines now cut through areas once considered far from the city centre.

But along the way, Kuala Lumpur also began losing some of the very spaces meant to protect it.

Rivers narrowed.

Green lungs gave way to development.

Open spaces became valuable land.

And flood retention ponds slowly found themselves hemmed in by urban expansion.

Listening to officials speaking at Kuala Lumpur City Hall headquarters on Jinjang and Batu flood retention ponds this week brought back memories of another flood-related press conference I attended many years ago, at the same venue in Jalan Raja Laut.

The mayor then had given an explanation and an assurance that Kuala Lumpur was learning from its mistakes.

That was in 2009.

Floods had wreaked havoc across parts of the city.

At the time, reporters were told that delays in completing the Jinjang and Batu retention pond flood mitigation projects were among the reasons floodwaters had overflowed into surrounding areas.

The RM528mil project was presented as a major effort to strengthen Kuala Lumpur’s flood defences and protect the city from future disasters.

Now, 17 years later, the conversation sounds painfully familiar once again.

During a Facebook Live session with Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Federal Territories) Hannah Yeoh and Kuala Lumpur mayor Datuk Seri Fadlun Mak Ujud at City Hall, it was stated that the two ponds in question had lost about 70% of original capacity after land within the water body zones was alienated for development over the years.

StarMetro report on March 12, 2009.

According to the latest briefing, land within the Batu and Jinjang water body zones had been transferred over the years, affecting maintenance access and compromising parts of the original flood mitigation functions.

Since 2015, 17 lots have been alienated to developers for development purposes, resulting in a reduction of the ponds’ capacity.

The ponds now total 33.5ha.

Of course, development is part of city life.

No capital city remains frozen in time.

But cities also pay a price when critical environmental infrastructure is treated as negotiable space.

Flood retention ponds are not decorative lakes waiting for commercial use.

They exist because Kuala Lumpur has always been vulnerable to heavy rainfall, overflowing rivers and flash floods.

Every major thunderstorm now seems capable of paralysing parts of the city within minutes.

Roads disappear beneath muddy water.

Vehicles stall.

Residents rush to move their cars while commuters remain trapped in gridlock.

And every time floods hit, attention turns once again to drains, rivers and flood mitigation systems.

These retention ponds were originally built precisely because Kuala Lumpur already understood this vulnerability decades ago.

They were meant to buy the city time.

To hold excess water during downpours.

To reduce pressure on rivers and drainage systems before surrounding neighbourhoods became overwhelmed.

For such systems to work properly, they need room to function, proper buffers and access for maintenance.

Perhaps that is why this week’s statement felt heavier than an ordinary media release.

Beneath the technical language was an acknowledgement that parts of the city’s flood mitigation system had already been compromised over time.

Kuala Lumpur does not lack engineers, planners or flood mitigation studies.

What it struggles with, perhaps, is maintaining long-term discipline when development pressure collides with environmental safeguards.

To her credit, Yeoh has taken an even firmer stand by stating that development approvals involving flood retention ponds must fully comply with technical requirements set by the Drainage and Irrigation Department before planning permission could be granted.

That is an important shift.

But Kuala Lumpur’s history also shows how easily safeguards can weaken over time as administrations change and development pressure grows.

The bigger challenge now is ensuring these protections remain in place long after current projects and political terms come to an end.

Because flood mitigation cannot depend solely on whichever administration happens to be in power at the time.

And perhaps that is the real lesson quietly resurfacing nearly two decades later.

Every administration inherits the consequences of decisions made before them.

History has already shown Kuala Lumpur what can happen when the city runs out of space for rainwater.