Retention ponds built to stop flash floods
Published on: Friday, August 27, 2021
By: Sidney Skinner
Activities were seen taking place at the construction site at the end of Lorong Apens 1 this week.
Two retention ponds have been constructed near Taman Dixon, in Luyang, as part of mitigation efforts to prevent two housing roads there from being hit by flash floods.Water from the front-yard drains spilled into the compounds of homes on Lorong Apens 1 and Lorong Apens 2 during a downpour in the middle of last month.ADVERTISEMENT
Some of the affected rate-payers say this was the worst instance of a flood they had ever experienced since they first moved to the neighbourhood.
City Hall has been periodically monitoring the goings-on at a vacant land near Lorong Apens 1, since then, to ensure that the developer abides by the agency’s requirements.
A spokesman for City Hall’s Engineering Department said, following talks with Mayor Noorliza Alip, the firm would be refurbishing the drainage and roads for the low-lying areas adjacent to the property.
“The developer has agreed to absorb the costs of this upgrading effort,” he said.ADVERTISEMENT
“This is part of a long-term strategy to ease the drainage woes in the neighbourhood.”
He said the company was also undertaking a flood prevention study, with the findings used to formulate a drainage system plan.
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“The developer has made an application to the Drainage and Irrigation Department (DID) for this purpose.
“The firm has asked for six months to finalise this plan and will submit it to us once it has received the necessary accreditation from the DID.”
The spokesman said, prior to the flood in July, City Hall had only approved the company’s request to have the property “back-filled”.
“The rain-water inadvertently washed the soil from the land-clearing into the roadside drains during the incident,” he said.
“The developer was served with a stop-work order and compounded for the poor management of the drains and silt from the property.”
When asked about the amount of the penalty, he declined to comment.
A lorry and crane were spotted inside on another occasion earlier this month.
“The company has settled the compound and submitted a sketch for a plan on how it intends to temporarily divert the run-off from the land.
“The temporary drainage breaks off in two directions to ensure that the volume of water pooling on Lorong Apens 1 is not excessive.”
He said the firm had also assured the agency that it would step up surveillance of the run off to minimise the possibility of floods recurring in the neighbourhood.
However, he said, City Hall was still waiting to receive a development plan for the residential project being undertaken by the company.
On a report from a rate-payer that the movement of lorries to and from the site had continued unabated despite the stop-work order, the spokesman said the developer had been questioned about this.
“We were made to understand that the heavy vehicles were initially utilised in the construction of the retention ponds,” he said.
“After this was done, the earth-dumping action resumed. The firm provides us with a monthly report on the progress of this work.”
Nevertheless, he said City Hall staff had been instructed to keep an eye on what was transpiring on the land.
GENSON of Luyang was under the impression that developer may have disregarded City Hall’s instructions to cease all operations at the site.
He noted the presence of lorries entering and leaving the vacant land from as early as July 17.
The run-off from the vacant land caused the housing drains in Taman Dixon to overflow in the middle of July.
These heavy vehicles continued to move on and off through Taman Dixon for most of August, according to him.
“It seems like the company is taking the floods, which happened on July 14 and July 15, lightly as the earthwork has been going on with minimal interruptions,” he said.
Genson, who has been living in the neighbourhood for the past two decades, said he had never experienced such extreme floods as he did that Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning in July.
“Water began spilling over from our front-yard drains after only about 15 minutes of rainfall that afternoon,” he said.
“Thankfully, the downpour stopped a short time later.”
When the heavy rains began again around 1am, however, the roads and compounds of homes on Lorong Apens 1 and 2 were buried under a higher level of floodwater.
He said the sky only cleared up after the sun came up that morning.
He said this was the third time this year that the drains along these housing roads had overflowed. Floods struck this area on May 19 and June 18.
These drainage woes began after the reclamation work started at the end of Lorong Apens 1 earlier this year, according to Genson.
“Me and some of my neighbours have spoken to the developer about this. Despite this effort, our pleas seem to have fallen on deaf ears.
“Nothing has been done to prevent the floods from occurring when it rains. No action has been taken to either to divert or contain the run-off from the construction site.”
He was made to understand that some 92 residential units were slated to be built on the land.
The Mayor and City Hall officers inspecting the construction site on July 15.
“The drainage for this new neighbourhood will eventually be connected with ours.
“In light of this, I wonder if the existing drains in Taman Dixon are big enough to cope with the added discharge from the property next door.
“Should the run off from the new homes even be channelled through our drains?”
He said he was not the only homeowner who was concerned about the impact the adjacent property would have on Taman Dixon.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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“Eighteen others in my area are equally troubled by the neighbouring development and have signed a letter asking City Hall to resolve our existing drainage woes.”
Genson said this petition was handed over to the Mayor when she inspected the construction site and housing drains in the neighbourhood on July 15.