The recent floods across the country, especially in cities and other urban areas, tell us one thing: we have gotten our flood management terribly wrong.
The past, unfortunately, is so much water under the bridge. We have to act now for the future. Other than the misguided city-planning practices, the term "flood management" may lead those tasked with mitigating floods to equate it with managing disasters after they happen.
This will be a mistake. And it will lead to the authorities to blame the floods on climate change. Granted, climate change is making the monsoons more dangerous. And when it rains, like it did in the past few weeks, exceptional isn't an inaccurate adjective for the rainfall.
One month's rainfall in one day is certainly out of the ordinary. Add to this torrent, the water brought to shore by abnormal high tides, we have a deluge on our hands, as we did last week in certain areas of the country. But there is such a thing as planning for 50- or 100-year floods.
Costly no doubt, but waiting for a deluge to happen is even costlier. Because flood management is as much a "before" as it is an "after" story. We have focused too long on the latter, with the former getting less attention than it deserves.
Urban planning is a good place to start. Here, flood risk assessment must precede any infrastructure design. Our old cities, Kuala Lumpur is not exempt, are a tale of poorly constructed structures, which amplify flood conditions. Poor maintenance makes this worse.
Urban planning is not just about design, but also about placement. At least of three things: buildings, roads and drainage systems. All three score poorly in terms of design and placement.
As for the drainage system, then National Water Research Institute of Malaysia director-general Datuk Nor Hisham Mohd Ghazali had this to say when this Leader asked him on Dec 20, 2021 to comment on the deluge that devastated the Klang Valley: no existing flood drainage system is designed to cater for 360mm one-day rainfall.
Rivers must empty out easily for floods not to happen. But when condominiums and office buildings are built next to riverbanks, floods are inevitable. The floods in Kampung Baru, Kuala Lumpur, a few days ago are a reflection of that inevitability.
If we began with urban planning, river management is a good place to end. After all, they are the source of floodwaters. There is a logic in river management that European nations like the Netherlands have put to good use: increase the natural capacity of the rivers to retain water through restoration of waterways. And if this isn't enough to hold back the water, it can be directed to artificial ponds or drained into the soil through soakways.
Our rivers are in dire need of these. Ask those who live by the river. Here is a bitter pill. No action at our national level is going to stop extreme weather incidents from happening. What we must do, though, is to find ways to live with them. Resilience will be the key for buildings, transport networks, drainage systems and waterways.