Sungai Golok residents fear erosion due to faulty culvert
Five families living along Sungai Golok near the Syed Agil Jetty in Rantau Panjang near here are concerned about the worsening erosion from a damaged culvert nearby.
They claim that a section of the culvert was dislodged and the water was diverted near their houses and eroding soil instead of flowing directly into the river.
The erosion eventually undermined the foundations of the nearby houses.
According to a resident, Roslan Jusoh, 49, part of his house, about 10m from Sungai Golok, collapsed a month ago when the flow of the water from the culvert gradually eroded the foundation.
‘’A section of my house which I used as a sundry shop collapsed.
“Luckily, I wasn’t there as I could have been seriously injured by the falling concrete,” he said yesterday.
Another resident, Asenina Ariffin, 42, said she feared her new house which was completed two months ago would also be affected if the situation were to go unchecked.
She said the State Drainage and
Irrigation Department had carried out work to firm up the soil in the area prior to this but the problem had reoccurred.
‘’I hope the authorities can speed up measures to remedy the situation otherwise many houses could be affected too,’’ she said. Meanwhile, State Works, Infrastructure, Transportation and Utilities Committee chairman Datuk Azami Mohd Nor said he would seek an allocation from the state government to carry out remedial work to check the erosion.