Recently, while I was driving in Ipoh town, I received a shock of my life, when I experienced a flash flood. Flash floods have never happened previously. These days it happens quite regularly due to monthly precipitation, and is made worse by infrastructural neglect and uncontrolled developments.
But the major cause of flash flooding recently in Ipoh is mainly due to the mentality of the people who treat drains, rivers, and streams as dumping sites. Besides rubbish dumping, the other main factors contributing to the clogging in Ipoh is high density residential areas, restaurants and workshops that throw their sewage directly into the river and also their industrial waste.
Furthermore, in planning for the future in Ipoh, city planners and civil engineers must make hydraulic calculations for drainage construction. Such calculations are based on the amount of average rainfall per year, which is then dynamically updated depending on current and relative observations.
I suggest that the Perak State Government, start cleaning the drains, rivers and streams in a systematic programme all year long with an annual budget, and organise occasional campaigns on flash flooding to educate the ignorant people of Ipoh.
Singapore is seen to be successful in maintaining a cleaner city and is not flood prone due to its strict enforcement of law. Hopefully Ipoh will follow suit and control it’s environment and flash flooding before it becomes worse in the near future.
S. Sundralingam
