DAP assemblyman: Recurring floods shows Penang state govt not serious in tackling it

Published: November 23, 2016 05:05 PM GMT+8


















DAP’s Wong Hon Wai urged the Penang state government to tackling the recurring flood problem in the state. — Picture by K.E. Ooi



GEORGE TOWN, Nov 23 — A representative of the Democratic Action Party (DAP) criticised the DAP-led state government who seemed to be not serious in tackling recurring flood problems in the state.


Wong Hon Wai (DAP-Air Itam) said that in any problems that occurred there should be a solution and urged the state government to find the real source of the problem.


“We need to move towards this direction. What is the solution? There must be solution. This (flood) should be prioritised. If the flood happened regularly, it only showed that we are not serious in solving this problem,” he said when debating the 2017 Budget at the State Legislative Assembly here today.


Wong said more than 50 homes in his area were flooded in October which caused severe damages to the properties.


In the meantime Wong also called on the Department of Irrigation and Drainage (DID) to analyse flood hotspots in details.


“DID should be able to collect more accurate data, time, water level, how long stagnant water remained and so on in those affected areas.


“DID would normally issue a report during the floods in a short time either on the day of the flood itself or the day after. Fast reports are not necessarily a good report. What I want to see are detailed technical reports such as where the water comes from and where it is flowing to,” he said.


Wong said he had asked the state government to carry out scheduled maintenance work on Sungai Air Itam and take steps to strengthening the banks, management of grass, shrubs, bamboo which grow on the banks and rubbish clearing operation along the river.


“The contractor responsible and frequency of garbage pickup scheduled by Penang Island City Council must be displayed,” he said. — Bernama

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