With the memory of the recent destructive floods in Johore still fresh,
the country is again paralyzed by yet another deluge, this time at the
nation's commercial center. At least this time the Prime Minister has
learned his lesson. Instead of absconding to Australia as he did last
January to open his brother's restaurant (now closed), Abdullah took time
off from his new bride to be at the flood scene.
It would take more than the Prime Minister fuming at senior
officials for delays in completing the smart tunnel to deal with the
floods. What we need are smart brains, not smart drains or tunnels.
These recurring devastations reflect the general ineffectiveness of
Abdullah's leadership.
Today, floods; yesterday, landslides; tomorrow the haze; these
are not acts of God rather the consequences of human mischief. The lack
of leadership at all levels, especially at the top, permits them to occur
and compounds the tragedy.
Primer on Incompetent Leadership
I lived in Bungsar in the mid 1970s. Then (as now I am sure)
even the slightest rainfall would quickly flood the road. Fed up with
the frequent interruptions and lack of official attention, I decided to
explore the situation. At the hint of an incoming shower, I would rush
down to the road. Sure enough, I was not the only one ready. There was
already a gathering of youths from the nearby squatter settlements
hanging around. When the flow began to build up in the culvert, they
would throw in planks and bins. It did not take long for the culvert to
be plugged and the streets to be flooded.
These youngsters would then have a heyday helping stranded
motorists, for a fee of course. I admired their entrepreneurial
ingenuity. Armed with this insight, I tried to contact City Hall.
Between the poor phone connections and the frequent transfers from one
official to the next, I gave up. I figured that if those officials did
not know who were responsible, there would be no one competent to handle
the problem.
Judging from the current news report, I imagine the situation
has not changed. Yet all it would take would be for a few city workers
to be out at strategic locations armed with a backhoe at the beginning of
a rainfall, ready to clear away debris before the floods build up.
When it is dry they should clear up the rubbish plugging our
drains and scoop up the accumulated sediments in our rivers. That would
deepen the channels and increase their carrying capacity. The subsequent
improved flow would also prevent mosquitoes from breeding, quite apart
from reducing the stench.
Additionally, the authorities could mount monitoring cameras atop high
buildings, with someone responsible watching them, of course. At the
first sign of a flood building up, a squad could be dispatched right away
to relieve the obstruction.
Whenever it rains, city officials and engineers should be out in full
force to monitor the situation. That is the only way to determine where
the bottlenecks and low-lying areas are. It would also deter the sort of
vandalism that I saw at Bungsar. By regularly monitoring the patterns of
the build up, competent engineers could then plan better remediation
programs.
Prevention Always Better
No matter how imaginative the drainage schemes, they would be for naught
if their maintenance were poor or nonexistent. You could barely make out
the concrete edges of the three-feet wide open drains around the Johore
Baru General Hospital when I was there. They were totally buried in
their own sediments, their carrying capacity reduced to zero. No wonder
the hospital was (and is) frequently flooded; the drains had never been
maintained since the British left.
The lack of maintenance is compounded by the poor design and
engineering. Examine any underpass; despite the dip and thus the
expected pooling of water, there is no underground drainage. The
slightest rainfall would cause dangerous hydroplaning of vehicles. The
only way for the water to disappear is through the sloshing of tires and
natural evaporation. One would have thought that where there is a dip in
the road or pavement, there would be underground runoffs built.
Malaysia has 100 inches of rain annually; that is a certainty. If an
area is paved, the consequences are predictable. The water would flow to
the lowest point and remain there to flood the area unless there is
appropriate drainage. Even simple villagers know this simple fact of
hydrology. I am astounded that paved parking lots and gutters from
expansive roofs have no clear drainage pattern built into the design.
I was involved in planning the expansion of my local hospital. My
part of California has one quarter the rainfall of Malaysia, yet the
architects and city engineers had anticipated the runoffs from the
parking lots and other paved areas by incorporating a retaining pond in
the design. With slight modification, that would also serve as an
ornamental pond and source of irrigation water for the landscape.
I am appalled that major construction projects do not address such an
important issues. With torrential rains a regular occurrence, Malaysian
engineers and architects should be experts in drainage systems.
Even when there are good designs, they appear impressive only on
paper. By the time the project is completed, the drains would have been
clogged, broken, or even mysteriously disappeared.
It does not take a smart brain to figure out how those drains
disappear when those projects get approved. Fortunately, eliminating the
flood of corruption requires less smart leadership, but a more tough and
honest one. Unfortunately, we are dried up on both.
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