By Lian Cheng
KUCHING, April 30: Sarawak Legislative Assembly (DUN) Speaker Datuk Amar Mohd Asfia Awang Nassar dismissed a motion to solve the flood problem affecting the stretch of Sibiew Road in front of Taman One Villa.
The reason given was that the motion lacked the ingredient of urgency which was required under Standing Order 15.
Chiew Chiu Sing (DAP-Tanjung Batu) moved the motion for the flood problem affecting a stretch of Sibiew Road in front of Taman One Villa to be solved as it created much inconvenience and life threatening situations for road users.
Chiew said Tun Hussein Road and Sibiew Road are dual carriage roads heading to and from Bintulu town.
Any major disruption on any one of these two major roads would hamper the movement of vehicles and could bring traffic flow there to a standstill.
“On the early morning of April 26, 2019, which was last Friday, after a few hours of rain, one side of the Sibiew Road, just after the Taman One Villa entrance, was flooded for a distance of about 50 metres.
“The water level was about two feet high at places and at others, three feet high, and smaller cars could not pass through. By five o’clock in the morning, three cars had stalled in the flood, making the road impassable.
“Several cars had approached the flooded area and seeing it impassable, made U-turns on that one-direction road. As a result, a couple of cars ran into oncoming cars.
“As this is also the road going to the airport and if one were to bump into a flood like this, it would take half-an-hour more to reach the airport by re-routing via the Tun Hussein Onn Road. And that is if you survive the U-turn I mentioned just now.
“As a government that preaches integrity, I cannot see any integrity on the part of the government about solving the flood problem there.
“We cannot allow the floods there to happen anymore. It must be rectified immediately before someone is killed.
“I cannot understand how a simple job like this, which when done, is good for the people of Bintulu, cannot be done immediately,” said Chiew while tabling the motion.
Meanwhile, Mohd Asfia explained that Bintulu Development Authority (BDA) had taken the necessary action to rectify the situation. — DayakDaily
