“HELLO,
please do not release water from the dam because our place is now
flooded.” An engineer, who is a friend of a friend, working at the Bakun
Dam site constantly receives such distress calls when it rains heavily
in Kapit, Kanowit, Sibu and other places at the lower reaches of the
Rajang River and water from the drains rise.
“At most times, there was no rain in the Ulu, and there was no excessive water to be released into the river,” he said.
But
this is one big problem that we are facing. Every each year, in cities
and towns throughout the state, our people have a number of days ruined
by flash floods. So far, the state capital residents have had the worst
this year. In the shortest month of February, though with an extra day
in this leap year, we have had three major floods in this southern part
of the *Sarawak.
It was especially annoying for many because the
first of the month’s floods ruined the Chinese New Year’s Eve dinner of
many families. It was devastating for even more because they had barely
cleaned their houses and replaced their damaged belongings when their
houses were again flooded and they suffered more losses. This is one of
the worst in years, with more than 8,000 residents in the southern
region being evacuated from their homes to flood relief centres.
In addition, the state is also suffering its heaviest losses in damage to public infrastructure and property.
“There
were at least 194 incidents of landslides and embankment failures in
southern Sarawak this February,” the federal Works Minister revealed.
The
“abnormally heavy rainfall” is to be blamed, according to this federal
minister. Sure, what else. The minister is not legally trained, hence he
is ignorant of the basic legal tenor that one does not accuse or lay
blame on another who is not there or could not avail himself to defend
the accusation made against him.
According to him, the state
capital’s drainage system was designed for 150 to 180mm of rainfall,
while the average has been 90mm. But he said: “in the latter incident,
there was rainfall of 300mm, hence the Sarawak General Hospital, Sarawak
police headquarters and the inner city fire station, all built on higher
ground and which have never being flooded before, were flooded.”
The
stunning pictures of a patient being carried up the staircases to the
upper floor of the Sarawak General Hospital, and the floating swirling
chairs in the Sarawak* police headquarters were shared thousands of times
on social media sites and those scenes will haunt Kuchingites
incessantly every time there is a downpour, until the *Sarawak capital’s
drainage system is improved.
Barely two days after the federal
minister said that the all-important offices to combat and cure
disasters are built on higher ground and have never been flooded before,
the fire station was reportedly flooded again, as my constituent shared
with me the photographs he took.
No statistics of that night’s rainfall was revealed. My calculated guess is 50mm?
I was hoping that the same federal minister would give us an explanation, but there was none.
There
are many causes for flash floods, we cannot just look up and point our
finger to the sky and blame it on “abnormally heavy rainfall”. In fact,
we Kuching city folk were much blessed that morning because it was all
sunshine and not raining upriver.
Maybe this is the first time
that the city capital and its vicinity was flooded three times in a
month, but the flooding of Kuching and the whole state is an annual
phenomena. We have flood mitigation plans and projects being approved
for the whole Sarawak, many were announced a long time ago. It appears
that these projects are not making progress.
My mother, although
never having spent a day in government office, reminded me that any good
government should take flood mitigation work seriously. The three
successive emperors of ancient China: Yao, Shun and Yu were exemplary
rulers. Their visions and commitment to do the best for the populace of
their part of the world brought socioeconomic progression and prosperity
to not only the subjects of one of the earliest civilisations 4,000
years ago, but the people of the most populated country today.
During
their reign, these three emperors were noted for their feats in the
re-engineering of the enormously diverse and monstrous river systems in
primordial China for irrigation, inland river navigation and flood
mitigation.
Of course, they were not qualified engineers. They
were equipped with only basic knowledge that the water will flow towards
the lower part of the land, and by travelling the length and breath of
the country, they knew her topographic features and characteristics as
if they were written and drawn on their palms. In fact, Emperor Shun and
Yu were made emperors because of their dedication and leadership in the
river engineering works and were most loved and adored by the people.
They had* no blood ties with their predecessors and were not from royal
families.
The perseverance and devotion of these noble rulers
finally paid off by the eighth year of the reign of Emperor Great Yu. By
that time, more than 4,000 years ago, nine largest river systems in the
vast country of China were engineered to flow east into the sea,
navigating through at least 11 mountain ranges on their way. The
monumental accomplishment resulted in the irrigation of huge plains for
agricultural activities, extensive networks of waterways for inland
navigation, and minimising the threats and hazards of flooding.
The
Great Wall of China had served its defensive purposes and its massive
construction work was hailed as one of mankind’s greatest architectural
and engineering feats.
In my own humble opinion, the combined
effort of Emperors Yao, Shun and Yu to devise and engineer the
enormously diverse and monstrous river systems in China for irrigation,
navigation and flood mitigation was a much more significant human
attainment.
Without extensive irrigation for farmlands, there is
no way the country could sustain a population of 1.4 billion citizens
today. Without their flood mitigation measures, the disastrous and
massive losses of lives and property in Chinese history before them
would have continued to ravage the country. It was not only their
foresight, but their personal touch to be with the people, to lead them
in overcoming the adversities that have made them bigger leaders and
rulers than they were.
Hence, I was hopeful that our Prime
Minister would visit some of the flood-hit areas during his Chinese New
Year visit to Sarawak, and make generous allocations for flood relief
assistance and expedite federal financial disbursement for approved
flood mitigation plans and projects.
It was unfortunate that he
did not respond to the enthusiastic request and reminder by our Chief
Minister. Citing concerns for the financial implications on the federal
coffers, he left Sarawak for the safer national capital which has all
the modern engineering facilities and infrastructure to contain
excessive and incessant rainfall.
It is no wonder that the
approval rating for his office is on free fall and a citizens’ movement
has been initiated to remove him, calling for the restoration of the
integrity of the country’s constitutional, legal and administrative
institutions. The "Chief Minister" has made the right move to designate a
senior minister to gather all the ministerial and departmental heads for
a joint effort to discuss a long-term solution to improve the drainage
system to combat and contain flash floods in the cities.
Indeed,
we should seriously looking into the development and improvement of
existing drainage systems and to devise plans to straightening,
deepening, widening, and cementing of the riverbanks and substrates to
form canals or monsoon drains in the cities.
There are measures
that we can undertake to prevent and mitigate flash floods, definitely
not asking the federal works minister to make a call to the sky and say
“hello, can you limit the rainfall to 150mm?”
Or can he?
My Comments:
Be prepared to establish Sarawak as a country and develop Sarawak ourselves. Stop them from plundering and exploiting us anymore!!!!
*I have changed it from state to Sarawak.
"Chief Minister" should be changed to "Prime Minister of Sarawak". Najib is the Prime Minister of Peninsular Malaysia. So, stop Najib and Zahid Hamidi as well as other UMNO leaders from coming here to "clown and monkey "play themselves.
