Penampang flood due to abnormal rainfall — DO
PENAMPANG: The flood which hit the district on May 31 was not as serious as the 1994 flood, said District Officer Luvita Koisun.
She said the 1994 floodwater was up to seven feet in Kolopis, one of the villages in the district.
She explained that the recent flood was due to the abnormally heavy rainfall at upper Moyog.
The normal rainfall is between 35 mm and 40 mm, but on that day, there was anomaly in the rainfall which was 168 mm.
“It was triple the amount of what was considered normal,” she said.
By 4pm, the water at the Babagon Dam was already overflowing and water was spilling out.
“The water was three feet high here (at the Penampang District Council) and two feet at the police station,” she said when briefing the president of Sabah Council of Datuks, Datuk Claudius Roman and the council’s other senior members.
The Council of Datuks was there to hand over flood assistance.
The villages most affected by the recent flooding at the Moyog River were Kolopis, Kibabaig, Sugud and Penampang Proper.
Luvita said that the main cause of the flood was the high rainfall, which was further exaggerated by the high tide which occurred at the same time.
“There was no way for the water to flow out,” she said.
She also said that hill cutting activities that occurred for years were among the contributing factors to the flood incidents in Penampang.
One of the villages most affected by the flood, Kibabaig, underwent rampant hill cutting activities in 2008.
“There are no more trees and the soil is loose. So each time it rains, the soil gets washed into the drain and clogs it, resulting in floods,” she said.
She added that the water level at Moyog returned to normal on June 3.
Meanwhile, Claudius in his speech said that the council sympathized with those affected by the flood in Penampang, citing that many suffered damage to their houses, causing thousands of ringgit in losses.
He added that based on media reports, the flash flood had always been blamed on the hill-cutting activities at Kg Togudon and the logging activities in the Upper and Lower Moyog (Timpango, Terian and Buayan).
“For example, along the road from Timpango to Terian and Buayan that was done by Syarikat whom they claim is helping the Kampung people of Kg Timpago, Terian and Buayan but it seems that these greedy towkays are only interested in the kayu balak (logs). They harvested all the 100 years old trees almost a kilometer left and right of the road without replanting trees of the affected harvested area and maintaining the road. The road is muddy and impassable especially during heavy rain,” he claimed.
He added that studies had shown that one to 100 years old trees can collect the water catchment for more than a million of gallons.
“So you see, how about the catchment of the cutting of more than 1,000 trees? The water catchment is now zero. The greedy human spoiled the nature and this is what we have in return. Do we have this serious disaster 10 years ago? It started from hill cutting and logging activities,” he stressed.
“So we have to put an immediate stop on these activities once and for all or else this problems will never end,” he said.
He proposed that replanting activities be done immediately at the areas affected by the logging activities.
He also proposed that the Forestry Department creates its branch at the Penampang district and deploys its staff there.
Also present were Datuk Verus Aman Sham, vice president of the council Datuk Stephen Sondoh, treasurer general and executive council members Datuk George Ginibun, Datuk Flora Evaristus and Datuk Aloysius Mobijin.