KUALA LUMPUR: Measures are being put in place to beef up the early flood warning system with a sum of RM160mil to upgrade and set up new infrastructure, says Deputy Environment and Water Minister Datuk Mansor Othman.

       He said this includes upgrading 516 existing siren stations and 155 existing webcam stations with an allocation of RM1.13mil and RM6.2mil respectively, as well as installing 361 new webcam stations at a cost of RM32.5mil.

       "The Irrigation and Drainage Department (DID) have already identified sirens stations in flood prone areas across the country that needed to be upgraded.

       "A total of RM160mil is needed for efforts to upgrade the sirens and the early warning system to tackle the issue of floods," he told the Dewan Rakyat during the emergency special sitting conducted at 1pm on Wednesday (March 9) to debate the recent flash floods that hit the Klang Valley.

       Mansor also said while the Malaysian Meteorological Department (MetMalaysia) was capable of coming up with early warning for floods, he admitted that there were weaknesses in predicting the specific locations that could be hit.

       He said on the day of the flash floods, MetMalaysia had come out with the thunderstorm forecast for the Klang Valley as early as 1.35pm on Monday (March 7) and even appeared on the Selamat Pagi Malaysia television programme to issue the warning.

       "What happens is that MetMalaysia can give early warning but there is a shortfall in the accuracy of the exact locations where floods will occur.

       "We are in the process of developing the solution and studying ways to fix the situation," he said, adding that the DID, MetMalaysia and the National Hydraulic Research Institute of Malaysia were in charge of flood-related issues under the ministry.

       Earlier, Wong Chen (PH-Subang) asked for a post-mortem engineering report from the Government on the cause of the floods.

       Fahmi Fadzil (PH-Lembah Pantai) said Klang Valley folks were traumatised by heavy rain as the recent floods was the second to take place within three months.

       Lawmakers spent their lunch break in the Dewan Rakyat on Wednesday (March 9) to debate the recent flash floods in the Klang Valley.

       Dewan Rakyat Speaker Tan Sri Azhar Azizan Harun had allowed the emergency motion raised by Fong Kui Lun (PH-Bukit Bintang) to debate the incident.

       On Tuesday (March 8), Fong submitted a notice to table an emergency motion to debate the flash floods which affected several parts of Kuala Lumpur and Petaling Jaya on Monday (March 7).

       Fong said floodwaters had damaged many vehicles and this resulted in devaluation of these vehicles with some owners losing as much as RM100,000.