Kuala Lumpur is an old city, we all know that. It is not a properly planned city and its infrastructure is not meant to cater for an ultra-modern overly developed, highly populated city.

The city has a population of more than two million and about 850,000 vehicles cross into the city everyday.

Add to this the 800,000 vehicles registered in Kuala Lumpur will give us a theoretical circulation in the city of 1.6 million vehicles daily. And we have not included the public transportation vehicles.

It is severely congested, with new buildings mushrooming every time we blink our eyes. These newly built structures are "planted" right in the smack of an already existing environment, thus putting more pressure on the drainage and road system surrounding the buildings.

The City Hall has done a lot to make this city world class. It now boasts the highest building in the world, it has an equal number of first class hotels, smart buildings and entertainment spots. The city is well-lit and has a feel of greeneries everywhere.

In a nutshell, KL is a modern city on par with others, but for the fact that it is prone to flash floods.

There are many reasons for these floods - old, small and clogged drains, over development, rubbish-strewn rivers and failure of any water retention system in the city centre.

Smart tunnels the answer?

Much has been done to overcome this problem - this include deepening the rivers in the city and its outskirts, putting up new drainage system, widening older drains and introducing an early warning system to alert city folks of floods. All failed.

And after the latest flash floods on Tuesday, the government has announced that it will build smart tunnels to channel water from flood-prone areas in the city centre into rivers.

However, like everything else, this idea too looks like a knee-jerk reaction that had not been studied thoroughly.

The viability of this project is still in question and its effectiveness unknown.

Why the pessimism? Well, for one, there seems to be a conflicting statement on when the system will take off. The Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad had said that the government was studying ways to overcome flash floods problem in the city, including the building of underground tunnels.

Then he added that the government had already started addressing this problem with the construction of smart tunnels in Sungai Besi. A major conflict here!

Working paper

And to put his two cents worth in, the minister in charge of the city, Tengku Adnan Mansor said a working paper on flood prevention will be presented to the cabinet in two weeks' time.

The minister said that various proposals will be suggested in the working paper, including the use of smart tunnels to channel water from low areas into a retention pond and finally into the rivers.

The picture that emerges here is that on one hand we have a minister talking of a working paper that will suggest ways to fight the floods and in the other the premier, while saying the government was still studying the matter, talks of already implementing these yet-to-be-made-proposals, at least the smart tunnels bit.

Of course, the smart tunnel project is a long term, and most probably, expensive measure. If it works, then good for the powers that be as they would finally solve the recurring flash flood problems.

But due consideration must be given on the viability of such a project. Other alternative and short-term measures must bee looked into too.

Flood sirens

City Hall must be vigilant in clearing clogged drains, introduce stricter building by-laws so that new building owners/contractors are responsible for soil siltation from construction sites and higher fines must be imposed against those who fail to maintain a proper drainage system in new construction sites.

Alternatively, early warning systems against flash floods must work and perhaps flood sirens be installed in flood prone areas to warn the public.

City Hall must also flex its muscle against private car park owners in flood-prone areas to keep their environment for flood-alertness. For example, these operators can be forced, legally, to inform car owners by telephone of rising water level. That will definitely help car owners to remove their cars before the situation worsens.

City Hall should also have a scheme to assist car owners and business owners affected by these flash floods.

Hundreds of cars remain submerged in the water and the cost of repairing the damage will leave a big hole in the pockets of these car owners. For these people, the City Hall can allow its own contractors to tow away the cars for free to City Hall-credited workshops.

Compensate losses

As for the business operators, their losses may be compensated by City Hall by reducing various taxes collected by it.

One may ask why should City Hall do these. Well City Hall is responsible for the city and it has a duty to provide a flood-free city to the public.

The City Hall must also have its flood-fighting team on standby so that they can go into action at a moment's notice. This team must coordinate with other services so that the public is not unduly hampered by these flash floods.

And it should not take the City Hall or the Fire Brigade hours to "rescue" schoolchildren who are stranded in the water-filled schools. On Tuesday, worried parents were still eagerly waiting up to 10pm to see their "rescued" children from a school in Brickfields.

So there are various ways to effectively fight the floods. It only needs a spirited effort by the City Hall which must make this its top priority. Otherwise, it will have to call itself, Kuala Lumpur, tunnel city with floods.

K KABILAN is chief news editor of malaysiakini.