SMART's Floodwater Tunnel Starts Operations

For all you doubting Thomases, here is a bit of good news from Bernama.

The SMART floodwater tunnel is fully operational starting from today, one week ahead of schedule.

Announcing this, Drainage and Irrigation Department (DID) Director-General Datuk Paduka Keizrul Abdullah said the tunnel was expected to be able to reduce the level of floodwater in the city by 45 per cent.

However, it would depend on the rainfall on the Sungai Klang side, he told reporters after a forum on flood management in the Klang Valley/Kuala Lumpur at Universiti Malaya here.

He said SMART (the Stormwater Management and Road Tunnel) would divert 90 per cent of Sungai Klang flood discharges into the Kampung Berembang holding basin and then to the storage pond in Taman Desa.

"Basically, we are controlling the quantity of flood discharges from Sungai Klang especially near Masjid Jamek," he said.

One should bear in mind that 55 per cent of the floodwater in the city was due to the overflowing of Sungai Gombak and Sungai Batu that cut across the Klang Valley, Keizrul said.

He said SMART was part of the Flood Mitigation Project in Kuala Lumpur approved by the government in 2002 which also included the construction of holding ponds in Batu and Jinjang.

The two ponds were expected to be completed by year end and they would reduce flood discharges from Sungai Batu and Sungai Gombak in the city, he said.

Other measures currently being taken were the widening of Sungai Kerayong and Sungai Damansara and the construction of the Sri Johor holding pond.

Keizrul said floods in the city caused by the overflowing of rivers would be overcome completely when all the components in the Flood Mitigation Project were completed in early 2008.