KUALA LUMPUR: The National Flood Forecast and Warning Programme (PRAB) has fallen short of expectations, particularly in issuing flood warnings at least two days in advance and improving warning accuracy to within 0.5 metres of actual flood levels.
The Auditor General's report, released on its website today, highlighted several shortcomings in the programme. These include the failure to construct and upgrade 10 stations and the non-installation of 13 hydrology equipment valued at RM0.77 million.
The report noted that forecasts for seven monsoon flood predictions were not issued a week in advance, and 51 warnings were given less than two days before the expected flood date. Additionally, based on the Northeast Monsoon Report, 28 alerts showed variances exceeding 0.5 metres between predictions and actual occurrences.
Predictions, warnings, and notifications issued were also inaccurate, with 306 areas failing to align with forecasts, and 183 areas encountering floods without corresponding flood warning bulletins.
The report also highlighted the project's delayed implementation in Kelantan, Terengganu, and Pahang river basins, exceeding the contract period by 1,829 to 1,836 days. It mentioned the closure of 10 newly constructed stations and delays in maintaining 335 stations by over two months. Complete neglect for maintenance in 20 additional stations was noted, along with a failure by the state's JPS to implement preventive maintenance at 204 stations.
The AG suggested four solutions to the Drainage and Irrigation Department (DID), which was mandated with coordinating and monitoring the programme.
DID should establish performance indicators to assess PRAB's success in achieving forecasting and mitigation objectives, minimising flood impacts.
The department should oversee telemetric hydrological stations, sirens, or web cameras and execute scheduled maintenance, ensuring optimal functionality of all stations and equipment. DID must also determine the best methods to ensure more stable data transmission from their telemetric hydrological stations to the gateway, which has affected 118 of their equipment for three consecutive months. Unstable data, resulting in "inaccurate prediction," was due to the closing of the 3G network.
The department should manage and ensure proper data processing from the Remote Terminal Unit to their Forecast Data Centre to prevent errors in rainfall output. This follows the report that the recorded rainfall data at the gateway for Kelantan, Terengganu, and Pahang is less than the expected number of data points.
The National Flood Forecast and Warning Programme (PRAB) was implemented following the decision of the Special Meeting of the Central Disaster Assistance Committee (JBBP) on January 3, 2014.
PRAB aims to continuously enhance and improve flood prediction models and warning systems through the application of more advanced, fast, and accurate technologies.
PRAB comprises four main components: developing a hydrological data tracking system, establishing a database system and ICT infrastructure, developing a flood prediction and modelling system, and enhancing the warning and dissemination system.
The Auditor General, Datuk Wan Suraya Wan Mohd Radzi, earlier revealed that Phase 1 of PRAB for three river basins in Kelantan, Terengganu, and Pahang was unsatisfactory.
Despite the government spending RM145 million for Phase 1 of the programme between 2015 and 2022, the flood forecasting accuracy rate is only 5.6 per cent. The total programme is unable to issue warnings and announcements two days in advance.