Press Statement By Violet Yong:
Residents residing along the Sg Sebiew and Sg Plan areas have had enough nightmare on the flooding problems there these years. Apart from damages and loses to properties, they also face mental stress problem when it floods. The people are emotionally numb already to the promises given by the Chief Minister to solve the flooding problems there.
“People are losing confidence in the government!”
Chiew therefore call upon the Chief Minister to look into these matters seriously, and fulfill his promise to solve the flooding problems in Bintulu without any further delay.
The Chief Minister visited Bintulu early this year and had announced a RM200 millions fund allocation for flood mitigation projects in 8 flood prone areas including a RM50 million allocation to dredge the Sg Sebiew and Sg Plan, but no works is seen to have been done.
In a media statement today Chiew said that the promises made will be 1 year old already in another two months’ time, but which flood mitigation project had been carried out remains yet to be seen.
Frequent flooding and flooding happening in Bintulu nowadays had proved that flooding problems were not solved at all. The flooding in Bintulu yesterday was serious. Flood water did not recede but stayed in the house for a couple days. Homeowners suffered big losses and is the GPS government going to compensate for their losses ?
Is the promise to solve the flooding problems going to become another empty promises, just like the promise to build the Autonomous Rail Transit (ART) which never materialized and now the talks is in for a Light Rail Transit (LRT) to substitute it.
For many years now, people in Sarawak had been looking forward to the megaprojects announced in the media by theChief Minister to take off but they have yet to see them being implemented.
Since early 1980s there were many development projects alongside the Sebiew river in Bintulu. The riverbed had turned shallow, trees and structures along the riverside also place stress on water flow during heavy rain, and led to overspill of rain waters into the housing area nearby. But the people have yet to see it being dredged and cleaned.
The problem had been voiced out by Chiew Chiu Sing in DUN years ago, requesting the government to pay attention to this matter seriously. Sadly, the government had not addressed properly the serious problems faced by the residents .
Chiew Chiu Sing
ADUN N.68 Tanjong Batu
30.11.2020