A Selangor government official has claimed that the April 11 floods in a residential area was primarily caused by highway contractors failing to comply with state orders, and not heavy rain as claimed by the company in charge of the project.

Residents living in Taman Bukit Teratai, the residential area next to where the Sungai Besi - Ulu Kelang Elevated Expressway (SUKE) is being built, previously complained that there had been two flood incidents in the past two months.

“We have established that the cause of the second flood was that the contractors did not follow our proposed solutions after the first flood happened,” said Zaidy Abdul Talib, the infrastructure, public amenities, agriculture modernisation and agriculture industry exco in the Selangor state government.

The first flood happened on March 19 while the second happened on April 11. Seventeen houses were affected in the second flood.

Zaidy blamed highway contractors for failing to comply with the demands of a stop work order issued on March 20, one day after the first flood happened.

The order had demanded SUKE’s contractors remove all sludge from the three catchment ponds located on the construction site and deepen the ponds by constructing higher gabion walls, he said.

A gabion wall is a retaining wall made of blocks of stones tied together using wire.

“When we (state government officials) inspected the site on April 11 (after the second flood) we found that no work had been done to remove the sludge, and the catchment pond had not yet been deepened,” Zaidy said.

Drainage plan failed

Last week, Prolintas Sdn Bhd officials in charge of the SUKE project claimed that heavy rain had caused the gabion wall they had built on the construction site to collapse, causing water to flood into the homes of residents during heavy rain.

“After the first flood, we also built a big drain and directed water to the main drain rather than flooding here (the residential area).

“But unfortunately, the flood occurred again,” said SUKE project manager Abdul Halim Romli.

Zaidy added that the Ampang Jaya Municipal Council (MPAJ) is working together with the Selangor Water Management Authority (Luas) and Department of Irrigation and Drainage (JPS) to ensure proposed immediate and long-term solutions are carried out by SUKE contractors.

Immediate solutions include unclogging sludge-filled drains in the residential area and organising an emergency briefing for Taman Bukit Teratai residents.

Long-term solutions include improving the existing sludge-management system and ensuring hydroseeding is performed on exposed soil to reduce soil erosion.

Malaysiakini has approached Prolintas for comment.