When Will Flash Floods Be A Thing Of The Past?

For the past couple of weeks, we have experienced a high volume of rain and almost every day the Malaysian Meteorological Department (MetMalaysia) issues warning of thunderstorms and strong winds. These issues are being noted with trepidation, knowing that if the water rises, there’s almost nothing that can be done. As normal citizens, all we can do is wait and see. If the situation worsens, we’ll just be evacuated to safety — leaving our valuables and home behind.

The most recent devastation happened only a few days ago when a 3-hour long heavy rainfall caused flash floods in many parts of Kuala Lumpur. One of them was where my friend worked — the Wisma UOA 2 building. It was disheartening to see a video of her filming her car being submerged with water right in front of her eyes. I may not know exactly how she felt at the time but I can imagine how I would feel if I was thrown into the same situation — despair.

My question is, why? Why do we, as citizens, have to go through this again and again? Actions should’ve been taken years ago! The flash flood that happened near my friend’s office (and some other areas in Kuala Lumpur) was not the first time. This was not an isolated issue.

Please don’t say that we did not have the time to study options to resolve flash floods in Kuala Lumpur. Flash floods in Kuala Lumpur have been happening for years, so how much more time do we need to study before taking action?

These recurring flash floods demand a reshape of our cities and sustainability plans. Has anybody ever heard of sponge cities? Chinese researchers proposed this model two decades ago and were accepted by China as their urbanism policy in 2014. If a big country with big cities like China can adapt this model on a huge scale, why not us? Sponge cities are also good for the environment because the policy is to use nature-based solutions such as natural landscapes to catch, store and clean water — which is especially suitable for countries that experiences monsoon!

Forget tunnelling hills or flattening mountains, catchment areas are around us! We need to put greed aside and plan well. After China’s success, major cities like Berlin and Los Angeles, Dhaka and Kenya are also adopting this model. Use funds for a better purpose, not just building tall skyscrapers. We should work with nature and use it to our advantage. It is not impossible, because it has been done!

However, let’s rewind for a bit because it would be unfair to only blame one party on this matter. Both the rakyat and the government should be held accountable for flash floods that occur in our country.

The topmost contribution to flash floods by the rakyat would be littering. Have you seen the photos of a fireman clearing out a drain because plastics of garbage are clogging it? This causes the water to rise, then overflow and flood the road, then causes traffic jam because roads turn to a bottleneck, then after an hour or so the water rise and floods to other places and so on. Who threw those garbage? It certainly didn’t fall from the clouds.

As rakyat, I think we should all work towards zero waste awareness and sustainable waste management. When I was younger, I always hear people saying, “Make the world a better place for our children (future generation)”. But what would happen if we overuse and over-consume without proper disposal (or recycling)?

Of course, this is not just a task for us at the bottom of the pyramid to think about. This is a different model that should be worked on hand-in-hand between the rakyat and the government. This idea might take time to see progress but with cooperation from both the rakyat and government agencies in providing solutions (maybe in form of machines, discussion with extended producers and their responsibilities, awareness in schools, etc), this idea might just bear fruit and we could staunch flash floods in Malaysia for good.

Aliza M. is a content writer under Headliner by Newswav, a programme where content creators get to tell their unique stories through articles and at the same time monetize their content within the Newswav app.
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