Residents’ refusal to relocate bogs down flood mitigation

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Pritchard

KOTA KINABALU: The adamant refusal of residents in Kibabaig to relocate is among the reasons affecting the progress of the Penampang district flood mitigation program.

Some are residents who have signed the land acquisition agreement but have yet to vacate their land, thus hampering the progress of the project and for remedial measures to be taken to address the frequent floodings in Penampang.

Other contributing factors include rivers becoming shallow due to silting and indiscriminate dumping of rubbish into the rivers and drains in the district, said Pritchard Gumbaris, political secretary to Penampang MP Datuk Darell Leiking.

Pritchard said the issues causing the delay to the Penampang flood mitigation program were revealed and discussed at length at a meeting of the district natural disaster management committee on Monday.

The meeting was chaired by district officer Henry Idol and in attendance were Irene Choo, state Drainage and Irrigation Department (DID) engineer, Penampang police chief, DSP Mohd Haris Ibrahim, and representatives from relevant government agencies, Pan Borneo Highway contractors and concessionaires.

According to Choo, DID is facing problem in getting the villagers in Kibabaig, whose land have been acquired for the flood mitigation project, to relocate. Some of the landowners have signed the agreement but had yet to vacate the land.

DID, she added, will be discussing the land acquisition issue with the Land and Survey Department.

She need to expedite the remedial measures to these issues so that the construction of the monsoon drain in Kibabaig and widening of the Petagas river can also be expedited,” she stressed.

Pritchard said the ongoing Pan Borneo highway project in Penampang was also discussed whereby the district officer informed that since the project started, there has been frequent floodings in Penampang in areas like Kolopis.

“The district officer wants the contractor involved and the DID to work together to find a solution to the problem. One way is to build drains to allow water to flow efficiently thus reducing the risk of floodings,” said Pritchard.

To this end, Pritchard urged the contractor of the Pan Borneo highway to repair and widen the river in Monsopiad which is now a bottleneck due to the temporary piling platform there.

“The contractor has assured me that the width of the river would be restored to its original state of 25 metres wide. This will ensure that the water flow will be back to normal, he said.

“Pritchard urged all stakeholders of the flood mitigation project to keep to the deadline given. They should also work together without pointing fingers at each other every time flooding occurs,” he added.

On the RM250 million addition to the flood mitigation plan, Pritchard disclosed that a cabinet paper of the funding has been prepared and will be presented at the federal cabinet meeting.

Another issue in which he expressed concern for was the uncontrolled hill cutting and land filling activities in Penampang.

An environmental study must be conducted before such activities are carried out so that the impact on the residents in the area can be determined and the Penampang District Council should be religiously monitoring these activities, he stressed.