KL Flooding. You Can't Stop Telling Lies.....

Once you tell one lie it is very difficult to stop telling more lies to cover the first lie.

Mistakes are similar in that fashion. If you make a basic mistake and do not correct that error but try to cover it up with other activities, more often than not the cost of correcting the basic mistake is very complex and can cost a hundred times more.

The frequent flooding in KL in recent years, especially near the town center has been caused by the construction of the LRT Station near the Masjid Jamek mosque. The station takes up at least 3 meters of space inside the river and across the entire width; thereby causing an artificial barrier that reduces the flow capacity by at least 30%.

This error is known to the authorities but instead of changing the design of the station so that the full river capacity is restored, they embarked on that SMART Tunnel project so that 95% of the river can be diverted in the future.

If you look at the KL map(click for a clearer view), the LRT station is built just north of Jalan Tun Perak. I expect the Sungei Klang will overflow at the station obstruction and since the surrounding area is low-lying, the spillover is going to quickly reach Merdeka Square and upstream of that river.

The RM6billion budget to build numerous ponds and deepening of river and installing more pumping stations may alleviate the floods but I feel they should spend the money to redo that LRT station that is the basic cause of the floods.

Once the station is clear of the river, I estimate the flooding frequency in KL will be reduced to perhaps once every 10 years. Other flood alleviation measures like desilting would not cost billions but a few million each year.

If you are a KL resident, you could capture the flood happenings at the Masjid Jamek station the next time it rains heavily and post to YouTube.

Map: Thanks to http://www.leeds.ac.uk/international/images/KL_Office_Map.jpg