SHAH ALAM: The Selangor government will implement 11 immediate flood mitigation measures at flood-prone areas, such as Taman Sri Muda, Meru and Taman Seri Alam, in the state.
State Infrastructure and Agriculture Committee chairman Datuk Ir Izham Hashim said the decision was reached at a special coordination meeting held yesterday between state executive councillors, several assemblymen, related local authorities as well as government agencies such as the Selangor Public Works Department and the Department of Irrigation and Drainage (DID).
The DID presented long term and middle term plans along with immediate measures to tackle floods in the three areas during the meeting, he added.
“For Meru, unowned drains will be maintained and flag gates will be installed at Sungai Binjai as part of the Sungai Kapar Kecil and Sungai Kapar Besar flood mitigation plans. Booster pumps at Sungai Binjai will be activated as well,” he said in a statement here today.
“Other measures include enforcement on trespassing on river land reserves and the shifting of utility cables and pipes that obstruct drains and the upgrade of the No 3 water control gate automated system,” Izham said, adding that the Selangor DID had also presented progress reports on the repair work done for the flood retention pond in Hillpark, Puncak Alam that broke for the second time, flooding Taman Seri Alam early yesterday morning.
He said Hillpark Resources had suggested several immediate measures to tackle the problem that will be implemented this week during discussions with the DID and residents’ association, adding that he would visit the area to chart the progress as well as the immediate and long-term measures agreed upon in the area.
KULAI – Seramai 46 anggota bomba mengambil masa kira-kira lima jam untuk memadamkan kebakaran melibatkan tiga buah kilang di Taman Perindustrian Desa Idaman, Senai, petang tadi.
Komander Operasi, Penolong Penguasa Bomba, Muhammad Fauzi Awang berkata, pihaknya menerima panggilan berhubung kejadian itu pada pukul 2.13 petang.
“Setibanya di lokasi, didapati sebuah kilang membancuh cat telah musnah dalam kebakaran sehingga memusnahkan 95 peratus struktur kilang.
“Kebakaran turut merebak ke dua buah kilang bersebelahan, selain memusnahkan tujuh buah kenderaan. Kebakaran dipadam menggunakannya teknik ‘medium foam’ dan teknik pancuran enam saliran,” katanya dalam satu kenyataan, di sini hari ini.
Tambah Muhammad Fauzi, tiga mangsa mengalami kecederaan melecur dalam kebakaran tersebut dan telah dibawa ke hospital untuk mendapatkan rawatan. – KOSMO! ONLINE
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - More than a thousand people in Istanbul turned to mosques, schools and other temporary shelters on Thursday after a strong earthquake rattled the Turkish metropolis a day earlier, leaving some 1.5 million buildings at risk, authorities said.
The magnitude 6.2 tremor on Wednesday sent citizens dashing from shaking homes, reviving memories of a historic quake that devastated the country's southeast two years ago - and raising anxieties about the city's lack of preparedness.
There were no deaths from Wednesday's tremor, the biggest in years in Istanbul, which sits just north of a fault line crossing the Marmara Sea. Some 5 million of the city's 16 million residents live in risky homes, data showed in 2023.
While the government said preparing the city for a bigger earthquake was urgent, the opposition party - which runs the municipality and has been frustrated by what it calls inaction by the central government - said its urban transformation plan must finally be adopted.
Imamoglu and some of the city's other disaster-response officials are in prison pending trial on charges brought last month that were broadly criticised as politicised and anti-democratic.
From his cell outside the city, Imamoglu - who is President Tayyip Erdogan's main political rival and leads him in some polls - said on social media it was his "greatest sadness" not to be able to serve residents at this time.
Dozens of people were hurt leaping from homes on Wednesday, which was the nationwide Children's Day holiday in Turkey, while concrete chunks from some buildings crashed to the ground. Seven buildings had minor damage as a result, authorities said.
"The immediate shelter needs of 101,000 citizens have been effectively and comprehensively met," Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said of people who overnighted in mosques, schools and dormitories. Others slept in tents or vehicles.
Murat Kurum, the urbanization minister, said about a third of the 1.5 million buildings deemed at risk "require urgent transformation - and we have no time to lose."
The municipal government sought to work with Erdogan's government on infrastructure transformation to prepare for earthquakes, he said. "With a sense of national and international mobilization, our Istanbul Earthquake Council proposal must be put into action."
February 2023's 7.8-magnitude earthquake was the deadliest and most destructive in Turkey's modern history, killing more than 55,000 people in the south and in neighbouring Syria, and leaving hundreds of thousands still displaced.
The latest tremor also revived memories of a 1999 earthquake that killed 17,000 near Istanbul, Europe's largest city which also spans across the Bosphorus Strait to Asia.
(Reporting by Jonathan Spicer, Ece Toksabay and Tuvan Gumrukcu; Editing by Aidan Lewis)