Lo wants follow-up on federal flood mitigation project

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KUCHING: The State Government has been asked to follow up with the federal government on the implementation of the regional flood mitigation project.

Lo Khere Chiang (BN-Batu Kitang) said the proposed project is very important as it will ease flooding here.

He also asked the state government about the development of the RM2.9 billion regional flood mitigation plans, which involve building of dams for water storage during the dry seasons, as well as for water retention upstream to regulate the flood waters during the wet seasons.

“The Drainage and Irrigation Department has been asked to do a comprehensive report with the assistance of the Netherlands a couple of years back,” he said.

Lo lauded the state government for the massive allocation of budget on flood mitigation works, amounting to almost RM100 million for the whole state of Sarawak, of which a substantial amount has been allocated for the Padawan Municipal Council (MPP) including Batu Kawa and Batu Kitang constituencies.

Lo said it takes efficient flood management planning to achieve an efficient drainage system .

“We must remember that the existing old drains are now being incapacitated due to new developments upstream and there is an urgent need to restructure them and to build bigger monsoon drains .

On the water supply issue, Lo pointed out that in recent times, there has been an outcry against interrupted water supply here.

He said certain quarters have placed the blame on power failures that resulted in the non-functioning of water pumps that supply water to consumers.

“One should not blame it solely on power outage, for with or without the failures of these water pumps, the reservoir should have sufficient water supply to meet the demands of consumers.

“We should look into ways where we can resolve this, and I believe that we need to have adequate elevated water storage tanks and reservoirs to combat an issue such as this.”

Lo believed that if there were enough elevated water storage tanks to supply uninterrupted piped water to our consumers, through gravitational process, without the need to wait for the restoration of the so-called power failures.