DELAYED PROJECT CAUSE OF FLOODS
More than 1,500 residents evacuated in Tebing Tinggi
MUHAMMAD MUSTAKIM RAMLI KANGAR news@nst.com.my
THE RM260 million Timah Tasoh west flood diversion project, which was supposed to solve flood woes in Tebing Tinggi here, turned out to be the cause of massive floods, forcing more than 1,500 people to evacuate.
The project, scheduled to be completed in the middle of this year, was delayed. The new deadline has been pushed to November.
Residents were left fuming as the final part of the 22km canal, which links a water tunnel from Tebing Tinggi to Bukit Wai triggered the floods.
The canal is supposed to channel water from the Timah Tasoh Dam to the Straits of Malacca near Kuala Perlis river mouth.
The rainfall over the past two days left some areas, which have not been flooded before, to be submerged up to 1.5m.
As at noon yesterday, 1,008 people from 277 families, mostly from Tebing Tinggi, sought shelter at flood relief centres.
Kangar member of parliament Shaharuddin Ismail said the project delay left the area exposed to floods every time there was a downpour.
He said this had not happened before.
“I urge the state government, the Irrigation and Drainage Department and the contractor to expedite the project.
“If the contractor is unable to complete it, (the state government) might as well just terminate the contract,” he said after visiting the site yesterday.
Tebing Tinggi residents, who were taking shelter at SK Bintong, appealed to the authorities to complete the project as soon as possible.
Mahidah Ismail, 40, said her house had never been flooded before. “Ever since the project started, my house has been hit by flash floods. The water reaches waist-level.”
Her neighbour, Norhidah Mohmad, 56, said it was a hassle to abandon her home every time it rained heavily and to clean up her house after the floods.
The floods forced a trunk road linking Wang Ulu to Kuala Perlis to be closed to traffic, while a petrol station in Arau suspended its operations.
It was reported that the project, which is 80 per cent complete, was delayed because it incurred technical problems in Bukit Wai as the contractor had difficulties building a tunnel.