By Shikin Louis
KUCHING, March 9: The federal government will build a canal to discharge water from the Sarawak River to the Salak River in an effort to tackle the flooding issue in Kuching, says Deputy Prime Minister Dato Sri Fadillah Yusof.
He said the Sarawak Drainage and Irrigation Department (DID) has been tasked to design the canal at the moment.
Once the design has been completed, they will proceed with the tendering process.
“During floods, this canal will be able to divert the excess water from the Sarawak River to the Salak River.
“The abundance of water would also become our reservoir, where we will build a temporary reservoir to discharge the water slowly to Salak River,” he said after officiating at the ‘Back2School’ voucher aid presentation at Dewan Malaysia Jaya here today.
He further mentioned that in the past, Kuching was inundated by floods whenever there were king tides and heavy rain. This continued until the completion of the Sungai Sarawak Regulation Scheme (SSRS).
“With the completion of the barrage, we are able to control the seawater from overflowing onto the land during king tides.
“However, what has not yet been resolved is that whenever heavy rain meets king tides, the barrage cannot be opened to discharge the overflowing water on land. This causes floods in many areas.
“Therefore, we will divert the water from the Sarawak River to the Salak River, where the canal will be able to keep the large volume of water temporarily before we discharge it slowly to the sea,” he explained. — DayakDaily
