KINABATANGAN: Kinabatangan member of parliament Datuk Bung Moktar Radin yesterday expressed regrets over the delay in the construction of four new settlements to accommodate residents in flood prone areas in the constituency.
FLOOD PRONE: Several houses submerged by flood water in Bukit Garam, Kinabatangan. — Bernama photo
He said the sites for the projects had been identified and approved by the government, but their implementation had yet to take off the ground.
He said they were at Kampung Bukit Garam, Muhibbah, Mengaris and Balat, the villages normally hit by flood every year.
“The appointed government agencies should carry out the projects as soon as possible because the tender has been issued so that the people can benefit from them,” he told reporters after visiting flood victims at Kampung Bukit Garam here yesterday.
Bung Moktar said he would bring up the delay in the project implementation to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and the Parliament as it affected the government’s credibility.
He visited flood victims who were given temporary shelter at relief centres at the Kampung Bukit Garam Community Hall and at Sekolah Kebangsaan Bukit Garam.
Meanwhile two primary schools here – Sekolah Kebangsaan Desa Permai and Sekolah Kebangsaan Balat – still remained closed yesterday because of floods.
Kinabatangan Flood Operations Control Centre chairman Arisin Arifin said the two schools would only be reopened once the floods water subsided and were certified safe for the pupils.
He said two other primary schools – SK Bukit Garam and SK Sangau – were being used as flood relief centres but classes were continuing at them.
“Only a few classes are being used to shelter flood evacuees and this has not affected school sessions,” he told reporters here.
Arisin said total flood evacuees in Kinabatangan now had risen to 2,763 people involving 575 families from 11 villages. He added that the water level at Sungai Kinabatangan was still rising and at 2pm, measured 11.53 metres, which was the danger level. — Bernama