The city was flooded again yesterday. What's new?
It took me 1 1/2 hours to get from EPF Building at Jln Raja Laut to Pusat Bandar Damansara yesterday evening at the height of the heavy rainfall. Usually, it takes only 15 minutes. Pusat Bandar Damansara was like a castle surrounded by a moat. Most if not all roads leading to it were flooded. If you are interested (which you should because it is quite interesting), this is the scenic route I took:-
Left office at 6.35pm. Drove along Jln Tuanku Abdul Rahman and was surprised that traffic was light. I intended to take the Parliament Road. However, seeing that traffic was not moving along Parliament Road, I decided to drive into Jln Sultan Sulaiman (at Bank Negara Malaysia) to get to Jalan Duta. Since it is a hilly drive, there should not be any flood. Wrong! The road in front of Bank Negara Malaysia was flooded. So, I drove along Jalan Kuching and exited at Jalan Dato Onn with the intention to go to Jalan Duta again. As I was nicely driving along Bukit Tunku, I was greeted with another flood. Imagine! Flooding around the Bukit Tunku area. Muddy water was flowing along the road like a stream of teh tarik freshly brewed. So, I made a reverse turn and headed towards Jalan Kuching instead. Ended up at PWTC and Jalan Putra. Seeing that Jalan Kuching was chock-a-block with traffic, I decided to take the Jalan Ipoh - Jalan Segambut route to get to Jalan Duta. Great move! Traffic was light and I reached the Jalan Segambut roundabout in no time. As I was inching towards the Jalan Duta Hockey Stadium, the traffic report on Light & Easy informed that the road in front of the Indian Embassy along Jalan Duta was flooded. Bummer! Luckily, I could still use the Mont Kiara route to get to Pusat Bandar Damansara. So, I exited Jalan Duta and headed towards Mont Kiara. Either I was blur or the signboard was bad, I ended up paying a RM2.00 toll, used a tunnel and got out at Damansara near Ikea and One Utama. It's okay. I can still take Jalan Damansara to get to Pusat Bandar Damansara. Traffic was moderate and I reached Eastin Hotel pretty fast. I think I spoke too fast. It was bumper to bumper all along the way from Eastin Hotel towards Pusat Bandar Damansara. I only reached Pusat Bandar Damansara at 8.05pm. By then, my bums needed a real massage liao!
All along the way, the traffic report on Light & Easy mentioned about flooding in many areas as well as faulty traffic lights. It seems common enough nowadays in the city of Kuala Lumpur and to a greater extent, the Klang Valley which boasts what was once the tallest buildings in the world (Kuala Lumpur Twin Towers), tallest flagpole in the world, multi-million / billion ringgit Administrative Capital of Putrajaya, multi-million ringgit Integrated Traffic Information System (ITIS) and countless other structures. Klang Valley folks have to put up with regular floods whenever there is heavy rainfall continuously for more than 2 hours. In fact, the name Kuala Lumpur which has its beginning somewhere along Masjid Jamek where the rivers Klang and Gombak meet somehow reveals how this city will always be associated with mud. "Lumpur" means mud. Perhaps the forefathers of this place had foreseen how muddy this place will be even in the 21st century.
It is shameful indeed. After spending millions if not billions on projects after project, the government is still not able to provide the very basic infrastructure of channeling away rain water in an effective manner. I am skeptical of the viability and efficiency of the SMART tunnel project which costs more than RM1 billion but is touted to be the answer to the city's flooding problems. Apart from time lost on the road for the motorists, much money is wasted in the form of the burning of fuel and damages to people's properties as a result of flooding. Businesses are affected as well. And how about increasing the stress level of the people? I am sure many motorists were tired and stressed out after being stuck in the traffic jams caused by the floods.
Looking at the present way things are being handled, I can't see anything but more flooding in the future. Just look at the various developments and projects taking place in the Klang Valley and how muddy water seems to flow out of these places whenever rainfall occurs. Mud gets accumulated in the drains and this will reduce the volume of water the drains are meant to disperse. How about the workers engaged to sweep the streets of litter or leaves? Have you seen how some of them conveniently sweep the leaves into the drainage holes along the road kerbs? That is recipe for more flooding!
Anyway, enough ranting for the morning. Hope you were not affected like me yesterday. Or perhaps, you had it worse. In any event, one just needs to look outside the window and appreciate the sun shine and enjoy life's roller-coaster ride. Welcome to Malaysia!
