*Points To Points (28)
Cognition on Flood
Mitigation
The ‘ge da’ (哥大) of the Visionary Team of Sibu once again invited the expert from
China to Sibu to talk about flood
mitigation. To be more correct, it is to
discuss about the building of embankment (1) to shield off the Sibu domain from
the menace of floods. What will happen
to the opposite side of the bank with the embankment, well, they assume the
deluge could go elsewhere. They are just
too ignorant to think holistically. It
is well understood why Wong Soon Koh, Wong Siu Hieng and the other experts are
condemned.
Since 2001 up to now April, 2008, I
don’t know how many times, Sibuans have
Suffered the
menace of floods and how much loss has occurred in these frequent flood
disasters. I wonder how much more
Sibuans have to endure the threat of even more frequent floods before they have
come to the final decision.
They said they had started drafting
since 1998! It is 10 years long already. They have been stone deaf to hear people’s
constant plead to dredge the strategic points of the river which are silted up
by long years of disposition of soil.
They seem blind to the heavy siltation at many places in the river. At some places, the siltatin is so serious
that you will see sandbars and islands in the river. I wonder how long the river has been
neglected. I doubt what the River
Management Board has been doing as a caretaker.
Is it another agency set up for nothing but wasting rakyat’s money?
Wong Soon Koh said these phenomena to
be nature-induced much against people’s knowledge about it to be man-induced
cause. He thought he could still bluff
and blablabla………. at will like before.
He really underestimated people’s cognition.
I don’t know what he attributed the
cause of heavy siltation of the Rejang
River to be nature-caused
problem out of ignorance or with the intention to cover up. Only when the people stood up and out one by
one to pin-point out the real causes of siltation and power of the collective
consensus of the people, then he seemed to come to his senses a little
bit. But he still insisted the siltation
of the Rejang River to be nature-caused. Dredging the river and straightening the
river were considered very much against the act of Nature. Believe me, he still believes building the
embankment and is fully charged in favour of this measure with the mind so
focused on RM 400 million at the disposal.
Tiong Tai King only believes in
layering up the roads regardless of the surrounding houses still a few feet
below and are subjected to flood menace.
He is ambitious for the allocation of money for more layering up of the
roads to prevent floods from flooding the roads! Like Wong Soon Koh, he is also more
interested in more money related business in flood mitigation.
Saving the river from further abuse
and neglect is not their business. I
wonder if he has ever questioned about indiscriminate logging at the upper
reaches of the river. He and his
extended family is engaged in timber business (2). Here is the conflict of interests. Robert Lau, Wong Soon Koh and Tiong Tai King
are one in mind and heart for embankment and road bunking to prevent floods
with RM400 millions at the disposal.
Robert Lau so said (26/4/08 The Borneo Post), that it was
not good to waste the State government money for dredging as it might prove
futile. He insisted that a lot of money
would be wasted through dredging. Does
he care how much loss has occurred to the Sibuans and how much more loss
Sibuans have to face in even more
frequent floods? He is too
government-oriented and speaks only official language.
I don’t know how many times people have appealed and repeated that the
government can actually save a lot of money if they issue licences (exempted
from tax) for dredging and if needed to subsidise the contractors to certain
extent. Look, this is the main problem
when these leaders / political players totally deny the viability of
alternative measure. I can assure 99% of
the people are in favour of dredging so that the river is forever navigational
and serves the people as well as before.
Well…………., I think we, as an
individual should learn to be more responsible and take more active role in
saving the river. We just can’t rely on
these political players / clowns and the government led by Taib Mahmud. The river has deteriorated to such an
appalling condition due to a long period of abuse and neglect. We should make the government led by Taib
Mahmud to be accountable. This river
belongs to everybody and is forever important to us. To make sure that it is forever living and
alive, every individual and the government should give it due care and
protection. The government should
enforce the stringent law to protect it.
We need this river for transportation and so dredging should be the best
measure to make it navigational.
To save the Rejang River, we don’t
have to stop all the development activities upstream as declared by some
political players/ clowns. It is but
stop PLUNDERING way of development. It
is to stop indiscriminate logging for various economic activities. It is to adopt a sustainable
development. It is also about proper
planning and regulations imposed on all kinds of economic activities to prevent
further abuse of the land.
As long as we can mitigate soil
erosion, we can ensure the flow of the river.
Of course, we should have enough contractors engaging in the regular
dredging and clearing of the river. Our
experts insisted that dredging was not a long term measure for siltation. Why not?
I wonder how much research they had done to declare that dredging was
useless. They said after dredging,
siltation could accumulate to the same level in 3-4 months’ time. I wonder if they can tell us how long it
takes for the sandbars to form.
I think these experts and the leaders of
visionary team are just too embankment- focused with RM 400 million (3) in the
view to see other more viable measures.
The over-zealous and eagerness with the idea of building embankment with
RM 400 million makes me think that they are well-charged with ulterior motives
to reap the benefits from the allocation.
We may not know the complexity of the
process / procedure of granting projects to contractors. But we know there are commissions in % to
earn in the success to gain the projects, big and small.
Notes:
1. Without enough research done, these experts
and political clowns are ever ready for
building embankment against the will of
the people.
2. Robert Lau, Wong Soon Koh and Tiong Tai King
are one in heart and mind of
building embankment and layering up the
roads to solve flood woes.
3. Earning commissions in % is an open
secret. Who will admit he can reap benefits
in the process?
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