Oct 16 2007
SRK Tamil Ldg Bukit Jalil flooded 3 times in a month
Drain to solve school's flood woes
By : Nisha Sabanayagam and Fay Angela D'cruz
| The resource room of SRK Tamil Ladang Bukit Jalil damaged by the floods. (Inset) The construction site where the open monsoon drain was covered up and replaced by a large underground pipe. — NST pictures by Fathil Asri |
KUALA LUMPUR: Floods struck their primary school three times last month, with water more than a metre high, so the residents of Ladang Bukit Jalil and Taman Muhibbah decided to do something about it.
Since their woes had begun after an open monsoon drain was covered up and replaced by a large underground pipe during construction works on a site next to Sekolah Rendah Kebangsaan Tamil Ladang Bukit Jalil, the residents hired a tractor to dig a drain between the school and the construction site.
Coming up next door is a temporary prison and police station, being built by Dewan Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur.
"We are digging our own drain. We got permission from the authorities," said the school's Parent-Teacher Association chairman, S. Balakrishnan.
"The pipe is not doing its job and the excess water is flooding the school grounds," he said, adding that the school was 60 years old and had never had a problem with flooding before.
Its six classrooms, the resource room, the sports room and the school canteen are covered with a layer of mud.
Balakrishnan said that all 30 of the school's computers costing RM137,000 were damaged.
The area's Member of Parliament, Deputy Home Affairs Minister Datuk Tan Chai Ho, visited the school after the first two floods and promised to meet with DBKL to discuss the matter, said Balakrishnan.
"DBKL sent some workers to clean up, but they are not dealing with the root of the problem, which is the drainage," he said. "It's been a month and we can't wait any more. The studies of the children are being affected."
The first time the school got flooded was on the second day of the Ujian Pencapaian Sekolah Rendah examination.
This Wednesday, the students are supposed to sit for their school's final exam, but it looks like it will have to be postponed, he added.
At press time yesterday, the school was again in more than a metre of water.
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