Dr Sim: People’s welfare more important than economic benefits

MIRI: The government will not hesitate to introduce new laws in regulating development to ensure that the people’s welfare would continue to be a priority over economic benefits.

Minister of Local Government Datuk Dr Sim Kui Hian said one such law currently being drafted would govern natural streams in private land used for housing projects. This would ensure that house buyers would not be inconvenienced by frequent flash floods resulting from the streams being filled.

He said the Attorney General (AG) Office and the Drainage and Irrigation Department (DID) were working together in drafting the law, which would be tabled at the State Legislative Assembly upon finalisation.

“Everybody complains to us about flooding and because there is no law to protect natural streams, I have asked the DID and AG Office to look into the matter for the interest of the public,” Dr Sim told reporters here yesterday.

Dr Sim was also asked about leptospirosis in Sarawak – the disease that claimed the life of its latest victim, a RTM Miri driver Basri Wen, 59, on Monday.

Dr Sim said the disease (also called rat urine’s disease) was very difficult to control and the government was looking at ways to prevent the disease from infecting the lives of many people.

“I have no hesitation to introduce a new law to protect all these, but not to protect people from getting leptospirosis. What is the point of planting hectares upon hectares of oil palm plantations and having so much money when we are also killing our own people,” he said.

Dr Sim added that in the wake of many animal and mosquitoborne diseases here like dengue, Chikungunya and Zika, the local councils should do something beyond their normal duties.

“They need to look at the bigger picture; otherwise it is not easy to address the recurrent of these dreaded diseases,” he said.

Dr Sim said integrated and continuous measures to prevent the spread of diseases brought by Aedes mosquitoe remained crucial, especially now since the dengue fever killed more people than Zika. Six deaths have reported out of 2,317 dengue cases reported so far this year.