Alam Flora workers to be on flood watch

KUALA LUMPUR: Alam Flora Sdn Bhd will place its personnel at flood prone areas in the Klang Valley to monitor the overflow of water from drains which could likely lead to another flash flood.
Its chief executive officer Datuk Mohd Zain Hassan said the company has identified the flood prone areas and will monitor the situation together with Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) and the Solid Waste Management and Public Cleansing Corporation (SWCorp).

"When there's rain, our men will monitor the drain and if the water volume is rapidly increasing, we will use our machine to suck the water out to ensure that it will not be overflow," Mohd Zain told the media during a press conference after a walkabout at recent flood locations in Kuala Lumpur.

Mohd Zain added that Alam Flora has suggested to DBKL to increase the frequency of drainage cleaning in flood prone areas, as well as Kuala Lumpur's hotspots as the current 'once a month' cleaning frequency is deemed to be insufficient.

"Kuala Lumpur is a high density area so we have to manage it well, just imagine, there's about 3 million people residing here and the estimate of people who litter is about 10% even though most of us know that it is more than that," he said.

Mohd Zain said the recent flash flood had caused drains that could not cope with the copious amount of rain which reached a high of 122.8 millimeter per hour to overflow.

"What causes the flood is the drain capacity. Before this, the drain can support the water volume, but due to global warming and unpredictable weather, the volume of rainfall can be high and we can't predict it.

"For example,there are drains that can only support 70 millimeters of water in an hour, but due to the heavy rainfall, it needs to cope with 100 millimeters an hour," he said.