Perennial flood-related problems frustrate council
Posted on July 19, 2011, Tuesday
KUCHING: Fed-up with the perennial flooding and flash flood problems besieging areas under their jurisdiction, Padawan Municipal Council (MPP) chairman Lo Khere Chiang and some of his staff flew to Kuala Lumpur last week to meet Natural Resources and Environment Minister Dato Sri Douglas Uggah for a solution.
Lo told a press conference yesterday that the meeting, which was meant to brief Uggah on the predicament they faced and the need for funds, was a positive one as Uggah gave them a sympathetic ear.
“We briefed the Minister about the poor drainage system as a result of rapid development in MPP areas. We were also hoping that he will assist us in getting funds to enable us to implement major drainage upgrading and other related projects,” Lo said.
He told reporters present that flooding and flash floods were “endless issues” besieging MPP, as the present set of waterways could no longer cope with heavy downpours.
“We are greatly concerned with the problems faced by residents in low lying areas. As a medium term mitigation measure, we plan to upgrade undersized drains.
“As for the long term, among others, we need to engage professional consultants to carry out a detailed survey on existing housing estate drains and produce a holistic drainage flow path design, besides adopting the proposals from the Drainage Master Plan Studies done by the Drainage and Irrigation Department (DID),” he said.
However, he lamented that MPP would not be able to implement both the medium and long term mitigation measures without sufficient funding from the state and federal government.
“Flood mitigation requires a lot of efforts and funds. For instance, we need about RM20 million just for conducting a detailed study to produce a holistic drainage flow path design.
“At the implementation stage we again require substantial amount of funds but, whether we like it or not, this is something that must be done and has to start. When before we have been talking about politics of development, today we should be thinking about politics of redevelopment.”
He added that MPP had in fact requested for government grants under the 10th Malaysia Plan (10MP) but until today they had not received anything.
“We have applied for RM49.5 million for our flood mitigation projects under the 10MP but so far we have received nothing.
“We are really in urgent need of funds to implement our flood mitigation projects.”
Also present at the press conference were MPP deputy chairman Mohammad Hashim Yap and council secretary Michael Saweng.
