Traffic jams are expected to be a daily occurrence - right up until early next month, if the Met eorological Services Department's weather forecast is accurate.

Worse still, it appears that not much can be done to alleviate the problem, the authorities admitted to The Malay Mail yesterday.

According to direct or-general of the Irriga tion and Drainage Depart ment, Datuk Ahmad Hu saini Sulaiman, the heavy volume of rain, combined with clogged drains, has been the main reason why thou sands were left fuming as traffic came to a standstill recently in major parts of the city.

"All it takes for floods to hit KL is for 100mm of rain fall at any one time," he said.

Large parts of the Klang Val ley were hit by flash floods on Tuesday and Wednesday, resulting in massive traffic congestion along many of the city's major roads.

"On average, around 200 to 250mm of rain falls in KL in a month. However, there are some areas in the Klang Valley that ex perience 100mm of rain in two hours."

Such heavy downpour means that it is, at times, impossible to avoid floods, despite the exist ence of flood management sys tems such as the Stormwater Man agement and Road Tunnel (Smart) in the city centre, the Batu/Jin jang retention pond, as well as rivers such as Sungai Kerayong, Sungai Damansara and Sungai Pencala in the Klang Valley.

He also cited clogged drains as a reason why excess water could not flow to rivers and retention ponds in time.

Although he was unable to say when a permanent solution to flood problems in the nation could be found, Ahmad Husaini said the outlook was positive as the nation?s flood management system is currently only 31 per cent completed.

He declined to give a date for when the entire system would be ready.

A former senior officer in the Irrigation and Drainage Depart ment said that rapid development in the city was another reason why floods are still rampant in the Klang Valley.

"The flood woes have increased three-fold in 20 years and some rivers are not able to cope with the large volume of water.

"We can build more roads and highways to bypass traffic, but we cannot widen rivers to put a stop to floods."

He said the best solution would be to build more storage and re tention ponds to retain water temporarily before channelling it to the rivers and streams.