DAP man asks S’wak govt to consider setting up authority managing Kuching’s drainage

KUCHING: The state government should consider establishing a Kuching Drainage Management Authority to oversee and manage the drainage system in the city, said Soo Tien Ren.

The Stampin MP Chong Chieng Jen’s assistant had suggested that all maintenance, construction, and approval rights for drainage systems in Kuching be transferred from local councils and the Department of Irrigation and Drainage (DID) to this authority.

“All government funding from the federal and state governments for flood prevention and drainage work should also be handed over to this new authority,” he said in a statement.

He said through this authority, this would ensure that all information and data on drainage systems in the city would be handled uniformly.

“Civil servants who are in charge of projects will also be able to focus on their work and at the same time, the public will know where to channel their complaints. By establishing the authority, this would also simplify the funding chain as the current chain for flood control is too cumbersome.

“For example, federal funds are channelled to the state government, which then allocates them to the local government, which in turn must allocate the funds to their subordinate departments, leading to a bidding process that is too complex and inefficient,” he said.

According to Soo, the people have often complained about Kuching’s drainage to the authorities, but the response they usually receive boils down to ‘insufficient budget and that drains are not under their jurisdiction’.

“Why do city councils or DID often respond to the public with these two points, and why is it that the current government system is unable to quickly and permanently solve problems for the people of Kuching?

“When federal funds have been approved, why do they keep saying there is no money?

“It should be noted that Kuching South mayor Dato Wee Hong Seng personally admitted on March 18 last year that the federal government had allocated RM150 million for flood prevention works in Kuching,” he said.

Based on the two points, Soo believed that the root of the problem with flood prevention work lay in the lack of concentrated effort to do ‘big things’, pointing out that the fundamental solution to flooding in Kuching was dependent on the efficiency of execution, and not whether there were sufficient funds or engineering plans.

“To ensure that flood control projects can be fully implemented, we must reform our administrative system, so that the people of Kuching can be free from the fear of floods,” said Soo.