PETALING JAYA: Segambut MP Hannah Yeoh said six retention ponds earmarked for flood prevention in Kuala Lumpur had been alienated for development.
She said as flooding and landslides continued in several areas, there was a need to take stock of the way development projects were approved in the city.
In a statement, Yeoh said the 2019 Auditor-General’s (A-G) Report revealed that the mayor had approved 943 development projects from 2015 to 2020 which were not in line with the KL City Plan 2020.
According to the report, the change in zoning for land use and density caused flash floods and congestion.
“Possibly the most damning revelation in this report would be the discovery that six retention ponds used for flood prevention had been earmarked for development,” she said.
This, she said, would “cripple” the entire flood operations system in the city, causing it to experience more flash floods.
“It was also clearly revealed that in the same period, Kuala Lumpur experienced flash floods 48 times, with a significant increase in flash floods from five times in 2017 to 13 times in 2020.
“I raised this (issue) in the recent Parliament meeting on the lack of response from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) on this report,” she said.
Saying the recent floods which devastated several states should be a wake-up call for City Hall and MACC, Yeoh gave the anti-graft agency 24 hours to respond “by opening an investigation and updating the people of Kuala Lumpur”.
“All the details are stated in the A-G’s report, including the chronology and failure of the approving committees in charge,” she said.
‘Sponge cities’
Meanwhile, Johor DAP’s Dr Boo Cheng Hau urged the government, the corporate sector and NGOs to work together to better manage natural disasters in the future.
Boo said Malaysia needed a long-term plan to create a sustainable model to
face disasters due to climate change.
He said the state governments should act against illegal logging and impose sanctions against rampant logging activities.
They should also gazette water catchment and flood mitigation areas as national security zones.
“There is also a need for new city planning and building concepts by adopting the idea of ‘sponge cities’,” he said, referring to a new urban construction model to manage floods.