YOURSAY | Flash floods: Climate change or human incompetence?

YOURSAY | ‘Is there something more than meets the eye about the ‘flash’ floods?’

KL flood mitigation project delayed another 2 years due to contractor woes

KINIGUIDE | How does climate change cause floods?

COMMENT | Eight takeaways from yet another flood disaster in KL

Cyclonus: The first thing to do is to remove Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man as environment and water minister. He is incompetent and lacks leadership in directing efforts to mitigate and resolve our flood control infrastructure issues.

The government departments under his ministry are running around having a field day doing whatever they like because he knows nothing about environment conservation, hydrology, and project management.

This is the perfect opportunity for unscrupulous parties to make a quick and easy buck at the expense of the rakyat's suffering and financial loss.

Newday: Tuan Ibrahim, there are many agencies that can do much better - Drainage and Irrigation Department, Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL), Environment and Water Ministry, Meteorological Department (MetMalaysia), National Disaster Management Agency (Nadma), to name a few.

Thunderstorms are tricky beasts. High intensity in one place and less in others. Yet we appear helpless in dealing with something that is very common in our tropical climate.

Look to the MetMalaysia and their weather radar. The resolution is from 1990. Modern weather radars are essential in mapping and forecasting where high amounts of rain will fall.

Regarding the official rainfall stats – yes, what you quoted was exceptionally high but certainly not a record. Where are the MetMalaysia rain gauges? All I can say is that we need more.

You could have a citizen hotline for people such as myself to log on or call to provide real-time stats from many places in the catchment area.

We must do better in all that matters. All I see is incompetence and panic from those in charge.

FairMalaysian: Who are these contractors hired to build the flood retention pond at the Police Training Centre (Pulapol) in Kuala Lumpur and how were these contractors awarded the contract? The answer will enlighten us on what went wrong.

The work seemed to have started in 2013. Shouldn't those involved have been sacked by now? What more do the people have to endure?

It will be fair to expect the minister concerned to resign for such a lack of urgency. Of course, he will sleep soundly but people will have to continue hoping for a defaulting god to come to their rescue.

DuZhiZhong: I am shocked by this gross incompetency by the contractor and the total acceptance and tolerance by the government and related agencies.

Public money has been misused, abused and wasted by gross incompetent parties and all should be held accountable and be punished to the full extent of the law. No two ways about it.

OCT: There has never been a government project that has been completed on time and within budget. The people can see that for any government project, there has always been one contractor taking over another for failures without penalty.

The government is not serious about penalising errant contractors. The environment and water minister said the most stupid and nonsensical thing.

The people know it was a heavy downpour that exceeded the monthly average. The minister implies that since this happened, he shouldn't be blamed as he has nothing to do with it.

He has no solution but to blame it on the rain. Solving flood problems does not seem to be his responsibility.

He doesn't realise that floods are man-made problems due to poor maintenance, heavy development and no planning. This is the type of minister the rakyat don't want!

GreenBear2417: Is there something more than meets the eye about these recent "flash" floods?

This is taking into consideration the speed at which the floodwaters seem to rise, submerging cars (even police patrol cars) within minutes without giving any chance for the drivers to save their vehicles.

YellowKancil0051: There is a difference between climate change over hundreds of thousands of years and climate change within a hundred years. Incremental changes over long periods allow life to evolve and adapt to changing conditions.

Changes over shorter durations do not. This is why "flash floods" are so destructive. If you think 6 degrees surface temperature increase from 2005 and 2018 is natural and normal, I would like to see you say that in 39 years after the same rate of increase.

BobbyO: Anything new? Every time floods happen, there will be some discussion and new promises made.

We have experienced floods year in year out for umpteen years. By now, we should be more prepared for this catastrophe. Yet we are never prepared.

Greed is the main sin that has caused most of the problems the nation is facing. Those who have accumulated the wealth can easily move to safer areas, but what about the millions who are unable to move.

It is no point in discussing the strategies that will help alleviate the flooding. It will remain as discussions and solutions stored away in some files.

No matter what we can say, development projects in the city won't stop. There will be more projects or buildings approved for construction, without proper planning as money will go into the pockets of those who have the authority to approve these projects.

The people must be prepared to brace themselves for more catastrophes in the near future. By now they should at least learn to wait before they head home during a downpour and park their cars away from flood-prone areas.

At the same time, those living near rivers must brace themselves of dam waters being released each time it rains heavily over areas where dams are located.

'Kita Jaga Kita' should be the slogan, as those in authority have let us down umpteen times with their false promises and hopes.

MS: We know what the problems are.

Corrupt politicians who cannot be held accountable for their crooked actions, a population that is largely indifferent to the environment and basic cleanliness and town planning and urban development which are always subservient to corrupt politicians and their equally corrupt developer friends.

The solution? In a failing country like Malaysia collapsing under the combined weight of its ineptitude, bigotry and corruption, there are none. Nothing will work because there are no fundamental strengths on which to rebuild.

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