By BORNEOTODAY REPORTERS
KUCHING: Urgent drainage upgrades, and dredging at Sungai Tabuan is needed to solve the long-standing flooding issues faced by residents of Tabuan Dayak. They suffered another bout of flash floods after heavy rains Monday night.
Although not life threatening, the floods have caused a lot of anxiety among the residents, explained Kelvin Yii, the Special Assistant to Chong Chieng Jen, the Member of Parliament for Kuching.
“They often go to bed worried, especially when it starts raining and it saddens them when they see their houses, including their furniture and electrical appliances, submerged in flood waters,” he said in a statement Tuesday.
The residents of Tabuan Dayak have been facing such a problem for many years, being hit with flooding every year-end, with areas around Lorong 5, Lorong 7, Lorong 10, Lorong 12 and Lorong 14 being the most adversely affected, and yet little has been done to solve the problem.
Kelvin was on the ground in the morning to speak to the affected residents, as well as to better understand the situation.
“We were informed that the water level started rising around 3am and was up to knee deep in some of the places,” he pointed out.
“One of the residents, whose house is very near to the river, claimed that the water level at his kitchen was knee-deep. This of course caused a lot of inconvenience to the residents on top of property damage to the house. Most could not go to work as they had to clean up their houses.
Kelvin added they were informed that authorities came to the area to do a survey claiming of plans to improve the drainage in the area about two months ago, but since then there has been no action.
“I thus urge the relevant authorities including the Department of Irrigation and Drainage (DID), and Kuching (S) City Hall to seriously look into this matter to solve this long-standing problem faced by the residents in the area.
“The drainage needs to be upgraded and proper widening done at Sungai Tabuan to withhold the increasing capacity of water especially during heavy rains,” he added.
He said it is hoped that there would not be any more delay in properly addressing the issue.
