Knowledge of floods

Knowledge of floods                                                                   1/1/2012

It is no miracle that Sibu a low-lying area is flood-free now.  We have ?  pumps and watergates in operation.  Sibu becoming flood-free is like a dream coming true after being plighted with floods for many times a year for so long. Sometimes even many times in a month for the past 16 -18 years.  Personally, I experienced floods up to the knees when I was small during the rainy season once a year.  From 199? – 2009, I experienced and also witnessed, the floods ranging from 1 foot to 3 or 4 feet inundating almost everywhere in Sibu when the heavy rain matched up with the king tide and the downpour upstream.  We experienced flash floods so frequently, too . 

          We had a lot of rain in December, 2011,  but Sibu remained dry.  Even Jalan Hua Kiew and Melian Lane which were considered most flood-prone are now flood-free.  We are not flood expect by training but we Sibuans came to know the causes of floods through years of personal experiences, observations and enlightenment.  I personally had the experience of flooded bathroom and came to the enlightenment.  My chance to live in the high area in Kuching in 2002 -2003 when there were heavy floods.  There I realized an important fact of water which forever and ever flows downwards.  But for the water to be discharged properly, a proper drainage system is the answer.  I experienced and witnessed heavy floods up to the waist when I was residing at Jalan Tong Sang which was so prone to floods.  I lived there from 1990 – June 2002. 

          When I studied floods, I also paid great attention to the words and actions of all our BN leaders, especially SUPP leaders.  My mind was so focused on floods that I discovered more and more the meaning of democracy.  Then I realised how abusive the BN political thugs and how corrupt they were. Besides  I also saw the importance of individual participation in upholding democracy.  I found that how irresponsible and ignorant the people in general were to exercise their rights.  The floods we faced actually were the consequences of our problems being irresponsible and ignorant.  We were irresponsible because we let our political thug abuse their power.  We elected the same persons all the time through the dealing of vote buying and selling .  It was ignorant because we did not know our rights.

          The harsh experience of floods brought so much enlightenment on democracy to me.  I see that the democratic form  of government like the road exists to facilitate people in general, not to the core ring/circle of the BN leaders and the privileged lot.  But I noticed these people enjoyed life at the expense of the mass.  Since then, I have taken it my mission to wake up people to their rights and responsibility to uphold democracy.

          When I saw floods at various places in Sarawak in December, 2011, I was very angry.  Based on the information I obtained from two versions of newspapers, I found that 99.9% of the flood affected areas such as Machan, Julau, Sri Aman, Lundu, Samariang, ……..were irrigated by the overflowing Rejang River or its tributaries as the water was Teh-Tarik in colour.  It is the characteristic colour of the Rejang River due to heavy soil erosion at the upper reaches.  So far only the water at the flooded areas at Sadong Jaya was Kopi-O in colour.  That means the water was from the

Sadong Jaya itself as it was heavily tainted with peat soil. 

          I hope these flood affected victims will assert themselves properly and demand for the losses in full amount. As the BN government led by Taib Mahmud and his cronies should hold full responsibility and accountability for the proper drainage system in Sarawak knowing that Sarawak is an area full of rain especially during the rain season.  They have done too little to improve the drainage system in whole-wide Sarawak.  They only put up a lot of shows in evacuation which can be avoided  if they have carried out enough work of prevention (better than cure).  That means to build proper drainage everywhere in Sarawak.

          I wonder if the flood affected victims know whom they should point the gun to for the menace of floods.  I don’t know whether they would be so ignorant to blame the heavy downpour upstream and the overflowing Rejang River not knowing that Taib Mahmud and his cronies, the demons have destroyed the water catchment areas at the upper reaches.  They have contracted out thousands and millions of hectares of land for indiscriminate logging for different economic activities legally permitted by these demons.  Taib Mahmud especially has gained so much ill-gotten wealth in the transactions.  People say he is the richest man in Malaysia through all kinds of abuses of power.  Flood woes we endure are actually the evil acts of Taib Mahmud and his cronies.  All these demons enjoy life at our expense.

          When a large part of land at the upper reaches are stripped bare, the heavy downpour just rains off the topmost soil and flows really fast downhill.  The soil erosion also causes siltation at different parts of the river.  The heavy downpour at the upper reaches accompanied by the king tide and the heavy rain at the local area with improper drainage no doubt can result in heavy floods as experienced by various places in Sarawak.

          There are 3 basic steps to curb floods permanently.  One way to curb floods is to prevent Taib Mahmud and his cronies to abuse their power further.  Every individual should hold more responsibility to monitor the economic activities upstream for the long-term solution to floods.  In other words, we should protect, conserve and preserve our environment, especially at the upper reaches.

          Another way to curb floods is to make sure that the drains at your areas can discharge water properly.  To prevent flash floods, it is important to ensure that the drains are properly constructed with the concrete wall and are deep and wide enough for the smooth flow to the rivers, sea and ocean.  Every individual should take drainage in your residential areas seriously.  You should insist proper drainage and having the proper drains is your right.   

Abang Johari barked saying that some flood affected areas had no proper drainage because the developers did not follow the specifications to build the drains.  Wei…………….in the first place, how could the authorities concerned let the developers who intentionally ignore the construction of drains????  When the developers fail to construct, you as residents should bring the matter to the attention immediately. 

I really think that each municipal council should be responsible for the drains on both sides of municipal roads; the state government for the drains on both sides of the state roads and the federal government for the drains on both sides of the federal roads.  To expect proper constructed concrete drains for a good system of drainage in each area, we require these authorities concerned to hold responsibility and accountability.

What I witness now is that these authorities concerned just push this responsibility to the developers.  I see the serious problems of this even the main public roads are not having proper concrete drains deep and wide enough on both sides.  When the main public roads are not having proper drains, they are bound to collapse at any time when there is soil erosion taking place on a massive scale.  Hence we often witness the Pan Borneo Highway collapse during the rainy season.  The recent one just occurred in December, 2011.   I wonder which government linked company built the road.  Damn it for such a lousy road system without proper drains on the sides.

When the drains can flow faster than the amount of rainfall, where on earth do we have floods? 

          Emulate the flood mitigation in the Sibu ways.  It is to have enough pumps and water-gates to regulate the water level.  We have had 9 water pumps and ? water-gates in operation lately  and hence the Sibu town area is no longer flooding like before. 

          The 3^rd step to curb floods is to built enough reservoirs to keep excess water.  There are many advantages of these reservoirs as they help keep excess water and thus regulate the water flow.  The water kept in the reservoirs can be used during the dry seasons for farm irrigation and other purposes.

          Besides our government can encourage each house to buy one and given one the tank capable of filling 500 – 1000 litres of water.  This is also a good way to reserve the water for different domestic purposes and help mitigate floods to a certain extent.  Personally, I have started tank keeping rainwater from the united roofing from my chicken coops and find that I can have the tanks with the capacity of 80 -100 litres filled full up in less than an hour for a heavy rain. 

          If every house can keep 1000 litres to 2000 litres of rainwater from the rooftop, what an amount we can hold.  I hope we would not pose a threat to our water board in this effort.