KUCHING: As a caring and people centric government, the state government, under the dynamic leadership of the Chief Minister through the Cabinet Committee Rural Transformation Initiatives under Key Result Area (KRA) 7-Flash Flood Mitigation, has approved a ceiling of RM100 million to implement 114 high-impact flood mitigation projects throughout the state.
These projects will be implemented in stages from 2017 to 2019. 97 of these projects with a total allocation of RM45.781 million are already in various stages of implementation by the local authorities, Drainage and Irrigation Department (DID) and Public Works Department (PWD), while the remaining 17 projects include the upgrading and construction of culverts for the existing earth drains along Jalan Datuk Amar Kalong Ningkan and Jln Datuk Tawi Sli in Batu Kitang Constituency in Kuching.
Assistant Minister of Local Government, Datu Dr Penguang Manggil disclosed this when replying to Lo Khere Chiang (BNBatu Kitang) in the Sarawak State Legislative Assembly in Petra Jaya here yesterday. He added that another 115 flood mitigation projects with a total allocation of RM25.04 million had also been approved and were now implemented by the DID and Local Authorities.
In addition, the Federal Ministry of Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government (KPKT) had also allocated RM7.02 million to the various Local Authorities in the state to implement flood mitigation projects while the Federal Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (NRE) had approved RM27.55 million to DID to implement the flood mitigation projects.
Examples of the high-impact projects implemented under the above initiatives are the Padang Merdeka Flood Mitigation Project to construct New Drainage Outlets for Storm Water Discharge at Jalan Masjid India, Jalan Market and Lebuh Java leading to Sungai Sarawak at a total cost of RM6.9 million and the construction and completion of the Proposed Drainage Improvement Project at Jalan Green costing a total sum of RM3.288 million.
