THE warning siren has been sounded much in advance. People have been advised to hope for the best and prepare for the worst. After the trauma of last year’s massive floods, which has not faded from memory, the hapless ones can only hope that what is in store will be manageable this time around from past experience.
As the public have been alerted in advance, it is only right to take the necessary precautions and preemptive measures to safeguard ourselves. The rakyat should play their part to try to minimise the impact of the floods. The lackadaisical attitude of some should stop. We cannot be giving the same old excuses and reasons for flooding.
I, for one, still see plenty of empty plastic bottles, plastic bags and cups floating in monsoon drains near the area that I live in my neighbourhood. It is the same with many sidewalks in other places. If people still keep throwing rubbish in drains and along roadsides irresponsibly, the occurrence of clogged drains will continue, and this can result in flooding.
Ditches half-filled with water are common sightings as one drives along suburban roads and villages. You only need torrential and incessant rainfall of a few hours for these ditches to be filled and to overflow to main roads, causing flooding.
We cannot wait for disaster to strike before remedial action is taken. We need to be proactive and avert chances of flooding before it takes place.
There is no point in playing the blame game after a calamity happens. Let us all play our part in a concerted effort in thwarting floods.
Thiagarajan Mathiaparanam
Klang
