Wong
KOTA KINABALU (Sept 17): The federal government has been urged to include flood mitigation projects, especially the Likas Barrage Project, in the 12th Malaysia Plan (2021-2025).
A car damaged in Wednesday’s flood in Penampang.
Democratic Action Party Socialist Youth (DAPSY) Kota Kinabalu Division Chief George Wong Hsueh Cheng said the state government should pressure the federal government for these projects as they are essential for not just the wellbeing of the people here, but also the Sabah economy as a whole.
“The people of Kota Kinabalu cannot wait any longer. If projects approved under the 11th Malaysia Plan five years ago (Basin 8, Dah Yeh Villa, Lido projects) are still in the process of design and tender, projects to mitigate flood for the Kolombong and Likas areas must be approved as soon as possible, or else the people here will only continue to suffer from floods for at least the next 10 years,” he said in a statement on Friday.
Wong, who is also a State Committee member of DAP Sabah, said that Sabahans, especially residents in Kota Kinabalu and Penampang areas, were expecting the Prime Minister to announce flood mitigation project funding during his visit on Thursday. However, no such announcement was made.
“The Prime Minister did announce that the federal government through the National Disaster Management Agency (NADMA) has allocated a sum of about RM18.24 million to help Sabah’s flood victims. Out of this sum, RM16 million was allocated for Covid-19 operations management. The rest of the allocation would be used for buying 2,000 units of Food Kits (RM160,000), 2,500 units of C-Tents (RM961,250), as well as the operations of the State Disaster Management Committee (RM20,000), operations of 22 districts under the Disaster Management Committee (RM1,100,000),” he said.
Wong said the allocation is rather meagre and shortsighted due to the seriousness of flooding which is happening every year.
“Kedah was earlier given a more generous allocation of RM78 million for the exact same matter, which is almost four times more than what Sabah had received. When such a comparison is made, you cannot blame Sabahans for saying that the federal government practices unfair preferential treatment to other states in Peninsula Malaysia at the expense of Sabahans,” he said.
Wong said he is disappointed that the Prime Minister fails to see the urgency of the need to resolve the root of the problem of flash flood in Kota Kinabalu, by allocating funds for the necessary flood mitigation projects as proposed by the Drainage and Irrigation Department (DID) Sabah, such as the Likas Barrage Project.
“The last flash flood occurred on September 2. Exactly two weeks later on September 16, Kota Kinabalu and Penampang were hit by another wave of flash flood. There was not only property damage but also loss of lives. An area hit especially hard was Kolombong, which is one of the backbones of Kota Kinabalu’s economy as that is where most of the light and medium industries, warehouses, workshops are located,” he said.
Wong said that now people are fearful and afraid to further invest in the area due to the threat of flooding whenever there is a heavy rain. The people here can only pin their hope that the government will improve the drainage system as soon as possible.