Grab riders earn praise after helping to unclog KL street drains, ease floodwaters

As floodwaters deluged the streets of Kuala Lumpur, clogging traffic and submerging roads, two Grab delivery riders showed that not all heroes wear capes – by clearing clogged street drains with their hands.

Heavy downpours led to congested roads in the Malaysian capital’s city centre over the past few days, with traffic on some roads coming to a standstill during evening peak hours, and other roads inundated by high water levels.

Amid the rain, two men wearing raincoats in the green of private hire platform Grab were seen in a TikTok video dipping their bare hands into the murky floodwater where some street drain covers were.

“I was just cleaning the clogged drain so the floodwater can flow,” commented a TikTok user claiming to be one of the riders. “My intention was to make it easier for people to use that road, that’s all,” he wrote in Malay.

The video, which was uploaded on TikTok on Dec 4, appeared to have been taken near an apartment building in Taman Leng Sen in Kuala Lumpur.

Many TikTok users expressed their admiration and sent well-wishes to the two Grab riders for their act of kindness.

The official Grab Malaysia account also thanked them, writing in a comment that the “abang Grab” (Grab bros) were a good example for everyone.

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