BACK AND FOURTH: Long-term solutions needed now, don't sit on it

Taman Sri Muda in Shah Alam, Kampung Bukit Lanchong in Puchong and Section 13 Shah Alam as well as Meru, Klang that were struck by floods and the pensive water phenomenon need immediate answers.

Immediate answers here mean both short-term and long-term solutions to address future flooding problems in these areas.

Ask anyone who lives in the affected areas and surely none have answers as to how they will face the coming days.

Two things playing in their minds right now; how their vehicles and homes were destroyed by the event and when is the best time to replace them.

A colleague, from Meru, said 80 per cent of his household appliances were damaged from the floods and had to be thrown out.

He is now at a crossroad; whether to replace them with new ones immediately or wait it out for the time being.

He feared that if another surge of floods were to occur in the near future, they would not be able to save the new items.

“Unless I move to a new place, that’s a different story.

“But to move somewhere else, I would need to buy a new house or rent first. All those things cost a lot,” he said.

When pressed further, he said flood victims can only rely on the government to provide ideas and recommendations on how to overcome the flooding woes.

“Only the government can solve this problem, and only they can provide the solutions.

“What we need is a long-term solution that can be implemented to address this. If not, we will never overcome this flood crisis,” he said.

Sinar Harian columnist Professor Ir Dr Muhidin Arifin recently said that the Kampung Bukit Lanchong flooding saw an estimated nine million metres or 9,000 million litre of collected rainwater, while Taman Sri Muda collected a total of 12 million litre of water.

This has created an ocean of its own, trapping residents in the area.

Dr Muhidin said the government must carry out a detailed study on the areas including identifying the drainage and irrigation system for water catchment areas.

Failure to do so would see Taman Sri Muda and Kampung Bukit Lanchong be permanently inundated as well risking more lives in the future.

As of today, we have not yet heard any long-term plans neither from the federal government nor state government on how to mitigate the flood crisis.

We hope whatever actions taken and decisions made will not take too long to be executed for the sake of the flood victims.

"Back and Forth" by Rozaid Rahman. He is Sinar Karangkraf Group Editor-in-Chief and Chief Content Officer.