KUCHING, March 23: The Kuching flood mitigation plan was a project under the 11th Malaysia Plan, which was approved prior to 2016, says Sarawak United Peoples’ Party (SUPP) Women chief Kho Teck Wan.
Kho said despite the overwhelming support shown by voters in Kuching and Stampin to Pakatan Harapan (PH), the much-needed Kuching flood mitigation plan was put under review by the PH government after the 14th General Election (GE14).
According to her, on December 2019, Datuk Sri Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar, who was Gabungan Parti Sarawak’s (GPS) MP at the time, demanded a status update on the non-progressing Kuching Flood mitigation plan in Parliament, although he wasn’t a representative of Bandar Kuching or Stampin constituency.
“Thanks to him, the flood mitigation project was finally approved to resume after more than a year.
“Due to much delays, the consultant was only appointed on Feb 28, 2020. The actual implementation of some disaster mitigation projects were only started in 2021,” said Kho in a statement today.
She was responding to Democratic Action Party (DAP) chairman Chong Chieng Jen statement recently saying that “the RM150 million Kuching flood mitigation plan was approved by the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government, but after the fall of the PH government, GPS with many ministers were unable to carry the project to completion,”.
“I would like to appeal to our state and federal legislators in Kuching and Stampin to actively fight for the upgrades of drainage infrastructure instead of pointing fingers and focusing on trivial issues.”
On March 18, Kuching South City Council (MBKS) mayor Dato Wee Hong Seng said the RM150 million Kuching Flood Mitigation Project will be implemented once the Federal government gives the green light on the submitted ‘Notice of Change’. — DayakDaily
