He has been working almost round the clock and has had little sleep. He is exhausted but what is most frustrating for him is that he had warned of the catastrophe but those in charge did not listen.

Instead, he was on the receiving end after he rebuked staff of the irrigation and drainage department (DID) two months ago over water pumps at Taman Sri Muda that needed repair.

He said he had been pushing for the water pumps to be repaired to avoid massive floods but it was not done. The impact of the floods would have been far less severe if the repair work had been done on time.

Taman Sri Muda, a township just 15 minutes away from Shah Alam, the capital of Selangor, experiences floods at least three to four times a year, with the waters rising to at least two feet each time, said Ganabatirau.

He said the Selangor state government had approved RM10 million in 2020 for DID to repair the pumps and other facilities to reduce the impact of floods.

“It is DID’s asset and the state government cannot do much. But the state gave them the money,” he told FMT.

DID had put up a signboard earlier this year, saying that repair work would start in July 2021 and was expected to end in 2023, he said.

“But nothing was done. That is why I rebuked them – for delaying the work,” he added.

He said that in November this year, DID had installed a temporary water pump but it was not enough to clear excess ground water to the river.

“Even now, it’s been five days since the area was hit by massive floods but the water is not receding,” he said.

“If only the pumps had been fixed earlier,” he said, further questioning DID for the delays.

He said the drainage at Taman Sri Muda, a mixed residential and industrial area, also needed improvement with additional drains to channel water out.

In October, the lawyer had criticised DID engineers for “poor planning” and “working so stupidly” for not replacing the faulty pumps at a river in the area. He was heavily criticised on social media for “being rude” and “uncouth”.