Authorities concerned must be held accountable – Liew
KOTA KINABALU: The relevant authorities like the Kota Kinabalu City Hall (DBKK), Public Works Department (PWD) and the Department of Irrigation and Drainage (DID) must be held accountable and answerable for their failure to address the constant flash floods affecting the city whenever there is a heavy downpour, said Api-Api assemblywoman Christina Liew.
“The public and the ratepayers deserve to know the real reasons behind their failure to mitigate the devastating flash floods whenever there's a heavy downpour all these years, despite all the publicities about huge allocations given by the federal government to implement flood mitigation programmes in Sabah, Kota Kinabalu included, that were reported in the media from time to time,” she said.
She cited for instance a recent news report quoting Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Seri Panglima Yahya Hussin saying the federal government had allocated RM760 million to date under the 11th Malaysia Plan (11MP) for flood mitigation works in Sabah.
He also revealed that under the 10MP (2011 to 2015), DID Sabah had spent RM198 million on flood mitigation projects in the state.
“But the question is, how come many parts of Kota Kinabalu City continue to be affected by flash floods, twice in last week (Friday and Sunday)? What happened to the flood mitigation infrastructures in place? Are they not functioning? Please give us a good explanation.
“And let's hope the heavy downpour today would not cause yet another flash flood that's worse than before,” said Liew who is also Parti Keadilan Rakyat Sabah chairperson.
Liew urged the relevant authorities to be more serious and proactive when it comes to addressing flash floods, reminding that they must not attempt to keep blaming it on heavy rain as if it's a rare phenomenon which occurs were in a desert.
“We must realize that we are living in a tropical climate with substantial rainfall annually, especially during the monsoon season. And we should also pay serious attention to the impact of climate change on our environment.
“Unfortunately, after so many years under the present Barisan Nasional (BN) government, we are still being plagued by the same problem, year in year out. This is despite all the sound-good, selfglorifying publicities on the socalled flood mitigation programmes funded by taxpayers' money,” she said.
She reiterated that a long-term solution to such a perennial problem is required in order to live up to Kota Kinabalu's status, both as the state capital and the gateway to Sabah.
“Flash flood affects everyone, the tourists included, and this certainly does not augur well for our tourism industry which the state government is spending so much time, money and effort to promote.
“If our relevant authorities are unable to handle the job, please engage experts in this field to assist in resolving the problem. Although I'm not an expert in this field, based on my own research I do know for a fact that there are many creative-yet-effective urban flood mitigation approaches available out there, some are even awardwinning engineering feats, such as the ‘sponge city' approach which has proven to be effective in flood mitigation in many cities around the world,” she said.
“We don't want to see the people of Kota Kinabalu continue to suffer and incur great losses due to flash floods whenever there's a heavy downpour,” she added.