When the drainage upgrade currently being carried out at the junction of Jalan Sultan Azlan Shah and Dairy Road is finally completed, it will have one very welcome beneficiary, Mariaville Nursery and Kindergarten located on Jalan Francois off Jalan Raja DiHilir.

Although Mariaville Kindergarten is located less than a kilometre away, it has been experiencing flooding for over 10 years.

A study done during the time of then Canning Councillor T.T. Liu four years ago, identified the cause to the small outlet at the culvert crossing under Jalan Sultan Azlan Shah at the side of Sekolah Izzudin Shah. The water would then continue across the road south of the traffic light junction going into Jalan Dairy and ultimately discharge at Pinji River.

Due to developments from the surrounding locations the volume of water for discharge during a downpour would bottleneck at the culvert which would then backflow. The drain that leads to the culvert runs immediately behind Mariaville and due to the backflow has been experiencing floods for years. The last flooding occurred in December last year.

According to a spokesman for JKR, the work began in May and is scheduled for completion by December this year. The cost of the upgrade is RM1.8 million.

Mariaville Kindergarten Principal Mrs Christina Noel said that she and her staff are very happy that the work was finally being carried out. “Hopefully when the work is done that will be the end of the flooding,” she said.

JAG