KUCHING: The government should build a master drainage and irrigation system for the city and greater Kuching areas to address flash flood problems.
Water flowing through this system could be channelled to a plant to be harnessed for things like generating electricity, suggested Padawan Municipal Council (MPP) chairman Lo Khere Chiang.
He opined that relevant government agencies such as the Land and Survey, Drainage and Irrigation and State Planning Authority should work out this system with all local councils in Kuching, Samarahan and Serian.
A cause of flash floods in the city during the monsoon season every year is that the development of the drainage system is not on par with the city’s expansion and population growth.
In most residential and commercial areas, the drainage is dilapidating, with some found to be more than 50 years old and water could not flow smoothly in them.
“The vast expansion of the city has made the old system obsolete. This could be due to the lack of planning and coordination between departments all these years. The current system, due to rapid growth, is not properly laid out. There are many big drainages channelling to small drains, thus causing bottlenecks.
“We need a more systematic network for the city and greater Kuching. The building of this network can be modelled after the sewerage system, where the water can be channelled to a collection point for harnessing,” Lo told The Borneo Post when contacted yesterday.
Never failing to raise the matter with the relevant authorities each year, he stressed that flash floods are a big problem that hit many areas in the city, and no local council could tackle this issue alone.
“Master drainage planning is very critical. Most of the river network is interconnected between all councils—MPP, DBKU (Kuching North City Commission) and MBKS (Kuching South City Council).
“When we talk about master drainage and irrigation system, we can’t look at one particular council. Take MPP as an example. Rivers running through our jurisdiction are also connected with Bau, Samarahan and Serian, which is under their respective councils.”
Lo was commenting on the occurrence of flash floods in MPP areas. On Sunday, a reader wrote to The Borneo Post to highlight about the flash flood problem along the Matang-Batu Kawah Road, which often hits the Taman Malihah area.
The reader, Wissley Suhen, said drainages were in bad shape and that the building of new housing development in the vicinity had worsened the situation.
Lo explained that local councils only approved residential planning as it did not cover infrastructure development outside the particular project boundary.
“New development in surrounding areas, usually raised higher to prevent flood, will lead to rain water being channelled to existing development that now becomes a low lying area. Originally, Taman Malihah has no flash flood issue. Now water flows from new housing estates towards Malihah.
“This problem is a planning issue. When the council approves a plan for housing estates, it only touches on the development plan and does not cover surrounding infrastructures, such as the major drainage system for the area.”
Lo mentioned such problem salso hit Desa Wira, RPR Baru Kawah, Arang Road, Capital Garden, Penrissen Road and many other housing estates, including Padawan.
A quick fix is to build a retaining wall surrounding low-lying residential areas and villagers provided with a pump system to drain out water. But this requires a big budget, he quipped.
With the next state election looming, Lo hoped more engineers would become elected representatives and roped into the state cabinet as he felt there were not enough technical people in government to provide expertise.
January 6, 2016, Wednesday
Borneo Post
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