KUALA LUMPUR, Feb. 4 -- From a little-known nerve centre in the city, a small team of just 43 people works around the clock, making the critical real-time decisions that stand between the city's 2.1 million residents and devastating floods.

Situated beside the Batu flood retention pond near Batu Metropolitan Park, the Sungai Klang Basin Office (PLSK) functions as Kuala Lumpur's flood-control nerve centre.

It is responsible for overseeing river-level monitoring, reservoir release management, diversion system activation, and issuing early flood warnings across all rainfall conditions, playing a pivotal and often unseen role in protecting the capital.

Their effectiveness was proven on November 24 last year.

As relentless and heavy rain c...