Published on: Saturday, November 08, 2014
FOR the first time in the last 50 years, there were three floods in one month which occurred on 7, 10 and 23rd October 2014 in Penampang. Both natural and man-made, the floods this time really showed what kind of leaders we have in Sabah. As published in your paper, these leaders are quoted to have said: -
1. “We will ask Drainage and Irrigation Dept to look into it” the Huguan Siou was quoted. After more than 50 years of independence within Malaysia, and the floods getting worse every year, are they still staring at the floods with binoculars?
2. Another former PBS leader was also quoted asking the now retired DO of Penampang to investigate the Babagon Dam, that the operators should have retained the water in the dam and release only after the flood has receded. Imagine where are they going to retain the flood waters when the dam reservoir is already full? Maybe he should have sent a billion of those blue water tanks which they used to distribute during election time to Babagon catchment to store the excess water?
3. A leader from Upko is quoted “If I knew it was going to flood, I would not have gone to Hawaii”. So childish because this is not the first time that a flood occurred but has been getting worse since the British Colonial government left. The people are angry at the lack of action against floods, not your oversea trip.
As for the relief donations in bags of rice and some foodstuff, they are just symbolic and sometimes create pandemonium as seen recently when typical Asians don’t know the meaning of queuing. It can hardly replace 1 per cent of the suffering and damage due to the floods. Apart from that, those whose houses have really been submerged under three meters of water did not find their names on the list.
I salute welfare Minister Datuk Jainab for suggesting to widen the mouth of the Moyog River to improve the flow of the floods. She is the only one who made sense so I suggest the Rakyat vote in more women leaders as I have lost my faith in the men. But at the same time it was noted that she did not come around to distribute aid nor visit unlike in Sepanggar even though her portfolio is welfare. Social media said it is perhaps because Penampang is now in the opposition or mainly Christian.
A self appointed “YB” of Penampang announced he alone will be asking the government for RM67 million for the flood mitigation including the construction of some drainage canals. I heard so many promises of flood mitigation in the last 10 years but they never materialised. Where are you going to build these drainage systems when all the land in Penampang have been bought and sold for millions to be reclaimed and commercial and housing have already been built? Perhaps the hefty amount needs to be used to compensate some buildings which have to be torn down for drainage wayleave or maybe some of there million will end up at the Jackpot machines that he is known to frequent.
Just give me RM10 million and I will call an open tender to clean up and widen the Moyog River which is the main cause of the problem. Of course direct award of contract straight from someone’s office will inflate that cost to RM100 million.
From hydrological view, what is the point of building drainage canals when all of them will end up pouring into Moyog River which overflows during the flood? When that happens, your drainage canal will be flowing upstream just as I have seen many rivulets during floods. The few storm drains existing all end up discharging into the river. Find the proof by accessing the google satellite photograph in the internet for free and follow the Moyog River from the Babagon Reservoir down to the sea at Kepayan and Putatan ( there are two outlets, one big the other partially man made.)
The width of the river is wide from Kg Madsiang down to Penampang Proper but from then on it meanders like a snake and is half in width due to siltation, from Dambai Bridge down to the sea. At some places, houses are built right to the bank of the river and even the access roads are built by reclaiming a part of the river bank. Riparian reserve does not exist in Sabah or in Malaysia for that matter and that is the real problem. Completing the choking of the flow of water are trees growing to the water line and bamboo clumps all lying in the river bed as my photo proves.
Nothing has been done to revive and improve this river since 1963, no thanks to our leaders. Blockages in the only river drainage is the reason why the flood on 7 October reached Donggongon town, Post Office and District office even though the same level have reached my house in the past without affecting these three locations. As for the second and third floods on 10 and 23rd, they came from normal tropical rain lasting less than one hour, and not the typhoon like Vongfong, hence drainage problem has to be the cause. By now every leader has forgotten about the flood because its over. The suffering continues for example the people cannot renew their driving licence at the Penampang Post office because the JPJ computer located near the floor was flooded.
At the time of writing, JPJ had yet to replace the PC with the special software for printing your licence. I am sure Express readers can give hundreds of other examples.
As usual, water supply and electricity was cut off during the floods. The water pressure went down because pipe normally leaks and burst when landslides occur during heavy rain. However for electricity, blackouts can be avoided if SESB relocates all the sensitive equipment to higher ground or elevate those transformers via stilted structures at flood prone areas. As far as I know the expertise of federal TNB has wasted millions building a substation at the flood prone padifields of Kolopis-Tindai which was long known for being under 5m of water during flood. so there must be other small single transformer stations still lying in flood prone areas. At the top of transformers you can find bare conductors which will be dangerous when reached by the flood.
SESB should also buy lots of boats suitable for use during floods to carry out repairs instead of spending thousands on speech competitions and holding a convention on childish 5S games which is equal to holding a convention for toilet cleaners. 20 hours of blackout twice cannot be solved by making a speech about flood waters. No matter how good your oratory skills are, the muddy flood water is not going away! Hopefully SESB is not going to lie on their SAIDI figures this year. The floods already contributed about 1000 of your figures so your target of only 400 are simply imaginary dreams.
This is an open petition to the government to mitigate the flood now as we have been waiting for years for your sweet promises despite the fact that Penampang have voted in BN leaders so many times. I did hear a comment along the flooded road by a motorcyclist with a foreign accent saying that the flood is a present for Penampang who are strong opposition supporters.
I believe the Babagon Dam do contribute to the speed of the flood, however my estimate is just one or two percent and this can be solved simply by proper drainage downstream. Those who keep on insisting on pointing fingers at the dam are the very same people contributing to the flood, by throwing rubbish into the river and by occupying the riparian reserves.
Victims, Penampang
The CM announced in the latest State Assembly sitting of flood mitigation measures – Ed
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