STUDY TO ADDRESS FLOOD ISSUES

KUCHING: The Ministry of Local Government will conduct a study with the local councils or local authorities (LAs) and the Department of Irrigation  and Drainage  (DID) to come up with more  feasible solutions and specifically dealing with the  traditional kampung.

And at the same time the  ministry  will also activate the divisional urban drainage committee   headed by the DID and to include   JKR, Land and Survey Department,  District Offices, local authorities  and other relevant agencies.

“This committee will enhance coordination in addressing the drainage and flood issues  in all the division in Sarawak including  traditional villages,”  said Assistant Minister for Local Government  Datu Dr Penguang Manggil in his reply to questions raised by  Dato’ Idris Bin Haji Buang in the august House yesterday.

Penguang said the drainage improvement works for Kampung Tradisi like any other kampung  tradisi in Sarawak was  always a challenge for the local authorities.

“Based on the experiences with DBKU and MBKS, the councils face various  issues and problems in dealing with  traditional kampung. For example a lot of these traditional kampungs are always located along rivers and low-lying areas  and therefore often affected by the king tide.

“Secondly the houses in these traditional  kampungs are often very crowded  and very difficult  to get space to construct the drain, let alone to get permission  from the  house owners,” he said.

“On the time frame to know the first result  of  the lab and  whether the ministry has proper assistance  in the form of funding  from the federal government in the short term, mid term  and  long  term, flood mitigation  initiative is  a continuous programmme and there is no time limit as to how long we see the result   that comes out from our lab,” said Penguang.

“Like any other projects that we have asked or bid for, the federal government as well as the state government are always very handy when it comes to funding  for  flood mitigation as well as drainage  and irrigation projects,” he pointed out.

Under the first rolling plan, for example, he said,  there was more than RM350 million  that had been approved for Kuching , Samarahan, Sibu and Bintulu, Miri and Limbang,  and these money came from the federal government.

And at the same time the local councils will also bid for funds from the state government as well as  from the federal government to  specifically  tackle issues  such as flash flooding as well as river flooding in these traditional village and that amount  actually for the whole of Sarawak will normally range  into RM2 billion to RM3 billion. It will cost between RM2 billion and RM3 billion, he said.

Sarawak Tribune

Date Posted : Tuesday 14-Jun-2016