Cognition on Flood Mitigation

*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?