KUCHING: Padawan Municipal Council (MPP) chairman Lo Khere Chiang has proposed for the relocation of Batu Kitang settlement as a solution to address the annual flood problem in the area.
Lo said his proposal might be a cheaper option for the government, as dredging the nearby river as proposed by the villagers would be very costly.
“It is not entirely wrong to dredge the river to create a bigger reservoir to hold the water but it will be very costly. Additionally, dredging will not solve the problem either because the floods that happened were serious and the amount of flood water was just too much.
“Imagine, the village was flooded with water as high as four feet recently so if we want to dredge enough to hold the water, the river will have to be excessively deepened,” he told The Borneo Post yesterday.
Lo, was responding to the villagers in Batu Kitang who suggested that the river nearby be further deepened, as it had been more than 10 years since the last river-deepening exercise.
The villagers had called on the government to look into ways to help reduce the occurrence of flood in their area, as they could no longer bear the damage done to their properties every year.
He said there were two types of floods namely flash flood which happened due to development and perennial flood which happened due to many factors such as climate change.
“To overcome flash flood, we need to have major drainage system to accommodate the water that comes about due to development.”
Additionally, Lo said professionals must show more responsibility by advising their clients not to put up their buildings or houses below the flood level.
“They (professionals) should study the area properly and should not encourage any construction if the area is too low.”
As for the perennial flood, Lo said it was difficult to be solved but in some developed countries, walls were built throughout the country to hold back the sea water.
“We can surround the whole of Batu Kitang with similar walls and then pump out the water but then it will be very expensive.”
He therefore said many factors had to be considered in trying to solve flood problem in an area.
February 17, 2016, Wednesday
Borneo Post
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