By Danial Dzulkifly
SHAH ALAM, Oct 11 — Flood mitigation projects take years to complete and demand enormous investments, state executive councillor for public infrastructure and agriculture Izham Hashim said in response to criticisms about Selangor’s flood management.
“When discussing flood projects, the issue must be approached intelligently,” he said in a video posted on his social media today.
Citing Shah Alam as an example, Izham said upgrading the city’s drainage system to provide 50-year flood protection, up from the current 20-year level, would cost RM300 million and take five years to complete.
“People often ask why floods keep happening, but large flood mitigation projects typically take two to three years to complete,” he explained.
Izham was responding to a couple of Selangor PAS Youth leaders who had lambasted the state government for purportedly failing to address flooding issues.
The Islamist party wing chief Mohamed Sukri Omar accused the state of failing to manage the disaster despite massive allocations from the federal government.
PAS election director, Kamalrul Jamaluddin, meanwhile, suggested Menteri Besar Dato’ Seri Amirudin Shari resign from his post to solve the issue.
On Tuesday, Amirudin’s political secretary Saifuddin Shafi Muhammad responded to the criticisms by pointing out that the state has taken various measures to address the flooding, both through structural and non-structural methods.
Meanwhile, Izham attributed the increase in flood incidents to climate change, noting that rainfall now often exceeds the 80-100mm capacity of existing drainage systems.
“Climate change has created these extreme conditions. We’re seeing phenomena that weren’t common before,” he said, adding that rainfall patterns have shifted, with downstream areas now receiving more rain than upstream catchment areas.
“The situation has changed, and that’s why we are considering various methods to deal with this issue.”
