Tiong inspects the flood area at Sentosa.
SIBU (Jan 16): Dudong assemblyman Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing said he will propose mitigation plans to the Chief Minister and federal government to solve the flood problem in the Sentosa area.
In a statement yesterday, he said he and his team took a motorboat to investigate the causes of the flood disaster in Sentosa, Sibu.
They went together with officers from Department of Irrigation and Drainage (DID) and the Malaysia Civil Defence Department to check on river estuaries and monsoon drains.
“Evidently, maintenance and dredging work on these rivers have not been well done. Without the necessary deep dredging work on the rivers, siltation has built up and caused blockages. Flash floods can come easily in heavy downpours,” he said.
He said the team then took a boat to Bridge A and Bridge B at Kampung Usaha Jaya and flooded sections of Jalan Bukit Lima Timur.
He was surprised that the surfaces of these drains and estuaries have all been cleaned up.
However, he said there still needs to be deeper riverbeds and fixes to the uneven slopes, inconsistent widths, and other substantial maintenance works to these drains.
“These have been plaguing the residents here for 20 years. I strongly recommend that these drains and rivers must be upgraded to reinforced concrete as part of the flood prevention solution, which could even reduce the annual costs of maintaining the river,” he explained.
He pointed to the heavily silted estuaries severely affecting these rivers to discharge into other channels.
“The thick fungi floating on the river surface also makes it difficult for even motorboats to traverse. The monsoon drain is also not well dredged as the excavator for dredging work is a small tonnage model.
“It is impossible to clear debris and garbage that sink to the river bottom. How sloppy can our government departments be at performing these maintenance work,” he asked.
He also suggested that the bridge in the Bukit Lima Timur reserved forest area should be demolished first as many of its poles are impeding river flow and causing blockage.
He said the authorities must also discuss and come up with effective solutions to the problem.
“I requested the district officer to convene a flash flood committee on Jan 25, to call together with Sibu Municipal Council (SMC), Sibu Rural District Council (SRDC), DID, and Public Works Department to develop a masterplan and estimate the funding needed,” he said.