State Gerakan Secretary H’ng Chee Wey said according to the Penang Budget, RM38 million has been spent since 2011 on “deepening rivers” and “flood prevention” yet flash floods were a still a common occurrence.
“Why are floods still occurring after spending millions of ringgit to prevent them?
“It is clear that taxpayers’ money has gone down the drain and the Penang government must be held answerable,” he said in a press conference today.
Monday’s flash floods in Penang, the fourth time in a span of only two weeks, wreaked havoc in low-lying areas near the island’s longest riverine, Sungai Pinang, causing roads to cave-in and swathes of mud from hill slopes to crash-land onto low lying areas.The Penang government meanwhile has accused the Federal Government of being non-committal in allocating a budget for the third phase of a flood mitigation project that began along Sungai Pinang in the late 1990s.
It however thanked the Federal Government for the recent RM150 million allocation for flood mitigation, saying it would request for more funds later.
Sungai Pinang aside, H’ng questioned why other areas were also experiencing flash floods.
He alleged that flooding in Bandar Baru Air Itam, Teluk Bahang and other areas located far from Sungai Pinang was clearly due to over-development, and cautioned that the recent episode was indicative of a more serious problem at hand.
He said the mud-coloured floodwaters indicated excess development in the island and the ground’s inability to absorb excess water.
“Look, I have lived in Penang since birth, back then we had floods, too. But we did not have ‘teh-tarik’ coloured floodwaters like now. Floodwaters back then were clear.”