Lo (seated centre) in a photo call with MPP secretary Andrew Joris (seated fifth right) and other councillors after the swearing-in ceremony yesterday.
KUCHING: The year 2015 has been a good year for Padawan Municipal Council (MPP).
Its chairman Lo Khere Chiang said this was because MPP had been able to implement successfully all the projects that had been entrusted to them, despite limited financial and human capital resources.
“We have tried our best. My council secretary, all my heads of departments and 450-strong staff in this council, we have tried our best to serve our rate payers and deliver our services to the best of our ability.
“I’m proud to say we have implemented our projects successfully,” he said in a press conference after chairing MPP’s last full council meeting for the year at MPP headquarters, near here, yesterday.
The meeting saw the swearing-in of councillors who received their extension of service by six months from Jan 1 to end of June next year.
Lo said MPP had also assisted in the implementation of Rural Transformation Programme (RTP) projects.
“We had more than RM4 million worth of Rural Transformation Projects, on top of the RM13 million Malaysian Road Records Information System (Maris) projects and RM5 million federal and state grants projects.”
Other than that, he said MPP had also been very successful in implementing the Urban Poverty Eradication Programme, that saw the council assisting in the construction of 11 new houses from 2012 to this year for needy families which cost about RM50,000 each.
Besides that, he said the council assisted 75 needy families in house rental this year in addition to assisting in 46 households apply for Amanah Saham Wawasan 2020 apart from assisting 12 applicants to join the 1Azam programme to operate small sundry shops and grass cutting business.
Despite all these successes, he said the biggest challenge to the council was drainage problems and flash floods because they required a huge sum of money.
“In Desa Wira for example, we require at least RM30 million to provide concrete drains and to upgrade the drainage system to prevent flash flooding in the whole housing estate. Another example is RPR Batu Kawah, the drains there, just like in Desa Wira, are almost 50 years old. The drains have sunk and are blocked. We require at least RM20 million to upgrade them.
“These are just two examples, there are many more 40 to 50 year-old housing estates that require the upgrade. This is the biggest challenge to me and I would like to ensure the people that I will continue to work hard and to seek grants from the federal government to improve on drainage facilities.”
Going forward, Lo said he expected MPP to be loaded with more projects to be implemented next year and called upon the councillors and staff to work together to bring all these projects to fruition.