DBKL Now Able To Issue Flood Warnings One Hour In Advance

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 12 (Bernama) -- Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) can now issue flood warnings up to an hour before flooding occurs, compared with just five minutes previously, following improvements to the Kuala Lumpur Command Centre's capabilities.

Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Federal Territories) Datuk Lo Su Fui said the enhanced functions of the command centre enabled flood warnings to be issued to residents much earlier.

He said 14 flood and flash flood hotspots had been identified in Kuala Lumpur this year, but none were located within the Batu parliamentary constituency.

"Based on records from the past five years, two locations in the Batu parliamentary constituency, Kampung Chubadak Asal and Kampung Seri Delima, have experienced flash floods, affecting a total of 250 residents," he said during the question-and-answer session in the Dewan Rakyat today.

He was responding to a question from Prabakaran M. Parameswaran (PH-Batu) on the number of residents living in flood-prone areas in Batu, the actual capacity of temporary evacuation centres (PPS) and the government's plans to provide medium-term temporary accommodation.

Lo said DBKL and the Social Welfare Department had coordinated the provision of 36 temporary evacuation centres, with a combined capacity of 3,550 people, as part of short- and medium-term measures.

On the challenges faced, he said about 70 per cent of the original 33.5 hectares of water catchment or retention areas around Kuala Lumpur had been lost due to previous land alienation.

However, he said DBKL and the Federal Territories Department were determined to address the issue through cooperation with the Selangor government to identify suitable sites for replacement retention ponds.

"In addition, the Federal Territories Department and DBKL have frozen development applications involving land on or around retention ponds and are planning to transform Kuala Lumpur into a sponge city.

"We will continue to improve DBKL's performance, particularly in tackling flooding in Kuala Lumpur," he said.

-- BERNAMA