JOHOR BAHRU: The Johor Bahru City Council (MBJB) will tackle flash floods in the city by increasing its water pumps from four to six units at the Sungai Chat Pump House here.
Johor Menteri Besar Datuk Onn Hafiz Ghazi said among the works that MBJB is currently, and will be, carrying out include adding two pump units with a capacity of 25 kilowatts per hour (kWh) each in three other locations of Surau Tambatan, Restoran Malay Village and Jalan Kampung Mohd Amin.
“In addition, the cleaning of litter on the ‘trash screen’ and waste deposits at the bottom of the Chat River as well as the construction of a ‘weir’ (a barrage across the river) in the upstream area.
“I have visited several places in (areas of) Johor Bahru and Iskandar Puteri that were hit by (flash) floods today and have asked the local authorities to find the best solution in all the focus areas to prepare for the onslaught of the flood season,“ he wrote in a post on Facebook yesterday.
Onn Hafiz said the Department of Irrigation and Drainage would also widen and deepen the Gelang Patah River as well as widen Sungai Senapang and build a flood-retaining wall in Kampung Muafakat.
Meanwhile, the District Disaster Management Committee said two temporary evacuation centres in the Johor Bahru district had been closed as of 8 pm today.
“However, four centres are still open, two each in Pontian and Batu Pahat, housing 193 victims,” it said. - Bernama
