A nationwide comprehensive study is underway to find out why, when and how flash floods occur with a view to finding out the most appropriate approaches to prevent it or to minimise its impact.     

Natural Resources and Environment Minister Douglas Uggah Embas said Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak had given his ministry this new task which would be part of its KPI (Key Performance Indicator).     

“Najib has given us a year for the study. We will analyse the result and come up with plans to resolve some of the related issues by 2020,” he said.     

Uggah disclosed this to the media after attending a progress briefing on the on-going implementation of the RM46.8 million Sibu Flood Mitigation Project Phase Two in Sibu today.

He said the study would cover all cities and major towns.    

“On March 7, due to a sudden heavy downpour, Kuala Lumpur city had received about 300mm of rain within four hours.     

“The deluge had caused flash floods in its areas and had even threatened our Smart tunnel which fortunately had been able to stand it,” he said.

“Now we have areas, which had never experienced floods before, being affected probably because of the global climate change phenomenon,” he said.    

Uggah added that in 2003 a similar study had been done on monsoonal flood.

“The study indicated that some 29,000 sq kilometres of the country were prone to such flooding.

“But after 2006 and 2007, the areas have increased. Now about 5.6 million of the country’s population are affected.    

“For the whole country we need a total of RM40 billion to deal with some of the problems caused,” he said.    

On the Sibu flood problems, he gave an assurance that the Barisan Nasional government would continue to address it and would make available the necessary funds from time to time for mitigation measures.     

He said under its second phase to be completed by May 17, 2014, it had spent close to RM310 million which included additional allocations.

- Bernama