Report: KL mayor says recent landslides mostly in older neighbourhoods like Bangsar, Taman Duta; wrong to blame overdevelopment
KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 5 — Kuala Lumpur mayor Datuk Seri Mahadi Che Ngah said it is wrong to lay the blame on overdevelopment for the recent spate of landslides as they mostly happened in older neighbourhoods.
Mahadi said locations where landslides have been occurring were in places like Bangsar and Taman Duta, where no construction sites were located nearby, The Star reported today.
“As such, it is wrong to blame overdevelopment for these occurrences,” he told The Star, adding that the landslide that occurred in Bangsar Indah happened on vacant land.
“A lot of it has to do with the soil structure of the area. Soil with a lot of clay and silt can hold more water. Loose soil structure, on the other hand, won’t be able to absorb water and this can result in slope failure after a continuous downpour,” he added.
Mahadi said that over 80 areas in Kuala Lumpur have reported landslides inundated by continuous heavy rain that weakened soil structure, adding that the worst landslide happened at Jalan Palimbayan Indah in Kampung Sungai Penchala.
“This is an old area with kampung-style houses on steep slopes with no proper infrastructure like drainage. These houses were built haphazardly many years ago and over time, heavy rains had loosened the earth, resulting in landslides.
“In fact, before this incident, we installed shotcrete walls along an affected stretch to control erosion. Houses there were not affected by the recent incident,” Mahadi told the newspaper.
He said that areas in older hillside locations like Taman Duta, Bangsar and Bukit Damansara were also affected by the continuous rains.
“In these areas, the landslide was not the result of human activity like development or tree cutting, but due to gravity and friction from soil movement and constant rains,” he was quoted saying.
New projects in the areas, he said, were designed with the risk of soil erosion and landslides in mind to prevent such incidents.
“We have already planned for new buildings to be flood-resilient and equipped with infrastructure such as drainage and storage facilities to hold water and divert any excess during heavy rains.
“That is how we control the discharge so that existing facilities like drains and monsoon drains would not be affected by the excess water,” he said.
On Kuala Lumpur’s flood mitigation projects, Mahadi said that 173 flood hotspots had been identified since 2019, adding that the only time the infrastructure could not withstand an overflow was when the water level was overwhelmingly high due to continuous rains that exceeded the capacity of the drains.
“Many of the areas face drainage issues and are unable to cope with the capacity of the water and rubbish.
“From 173, we zoomed in on 39 critical areas. Work is ongoing to improve the infrastructure there,” he said.
Mahadi also said that 22 major projects that are ongoing were not affected by the floods, with some in Cheras near the MRT station and Jalan Duta, while the one at Universiti Malaya had been completed.
He added that he was informed by the Drainage and Irrigation Department that what happened last December 18 and 19 was beyond anything they had expected or anticipated, with incidents like this only occurring every 100 years.
“And if that happens, we need to review the designs for future developments since we can no longer rely on the data based on 100 years anymore. Bottom line is we have to accept the fact that climate change and global warming are going to play a major role in increasing the risk of flooding in the future.
“We all need to play a role to counter or mitigate that,” he added.
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