LETTER | According to Malaysia Meteorological Department (MMD), starting from September until early November, Malaysia will experience heavy rains and thunderstorms in the evenings due to the monsoon transition.

The heavy downpours and strong winds recently in the Klang Valley has caused few flash floods incidents. However, it should be noted that these flash floods happened because of the clogged drains.

For instance, on Oct 4, business owners in the Bukit Kemuning Light Industrial Park faced thousands if ringgit in losses due to their business premises being flooded.

Last year on Oct 20, flash floods in Jelapang’s town centre were caused by the drainage system which had many drains clogged with garbage and sediments. A month later, Taman Selayang was flooded due to the poor maintenance of drains along Jalan 2, Taman Selayang.

There are many flash floods incidents which happen due to the poor maintenance of the drainage system which is filled with garbage which obstructs the rainwater from flowing away quickly and easily.

Silt, garbage and other obstructions are reducing the carrying capacity of the drainage system by up to 50 percent and thus causing flash floods. Apart from that, the width of the drains also plays the role in making it difficult for rainwater to flow.

There are certainly enough drains and canals but there is a chronic lack of maintenance from the authorities such as the municipal councils, the Drainage and Irrigation Department (DID), the Solid Waste and the Public Cleansing Management Corporation (SWCorp).

The public should also take the blame as well. They have largely contributed to clogged drains because of their indiscriminate dumping of garbage.

Urgent remedial work is needed to alleviate the situation but there has been no improvement for years and the public is largely unconcerned about this until there is a flood.

The solution for these incidents have been discussed for years, however, the solution has not been implemented seriously and continuously.

In this new era, the related authorities should play their roles to prevent massive flash floods due to clogged drains. The public also needs to play their role by stop dumping their garbage into drains and rivers.

The authorities and public should work together hand-in-hand to cope with this issue.

The writer is attached to the Malaysia Water Forum.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.