Kota Tinggi traders want river deepened

Washing away the mess: Agus (right) and his workers cleaning his flood-hit restaurant in Kota Tinggi.

KOTA TINGGI: Owners of businesses affected by the recent floods in Pekan Kota Tinggi are urging the government to deepen the river near the Sungai Bang Recreational Park here.

They said the floods on March 1 marked the second time their businesses were badly affected this year.

An audio system shop owner, who only wanted to be known as Jackson, 50, said he believed the floods were preventable.

“You can see that the river wall is filled with untrimmed tall grass and rubbish, disrupting water flow and causing floods.

“How long do we have to live in fear and suffer like this? Please pity the people and do something about this river,” he said when met at his shop in Jalan Niaga.

Jackson said he had been operating in the same location for the past 22 years, but this was the biggest loss he had faced from the floods.

“Some of the damaged goods are worth RM3,000. We did not manage to save some of the items, thinking that the flood earlier this year was the end of it,” he said.

Cosmetic shop owner Omar Misrat, 53, said he suffered RM5,000 in losses as the water destroyed the wooden furniture in his shop, including the partition walls.

“The shop needs to be repaired which is impossible right now. I am not sure when to reopen due to the uncertain weather.

“Luckily, I live upstairs so I managed to save some of the make-up and other items during the heavy rain last Wednesday,” he said.

He pointed out that Pekan Kota Tinggi was one of the low-lying areas in the district.

“The water came from Sungai Bang, a Sungai Johor tributary. We hope the government can do something like conduct a scheduled clean-up with the Drainage and Irrigation Department,” he added.

Nasi ayam penyet restaurant owner Agus Rubianto, 53, said he had to discard some of the damaged furniture in his shop yesterday.

“When I came to check my shop at around 6am, I noticed the water had started to recede, so I called some of my workers to help with the clean-up.

“Some of the wooden furniture had been soaked with floodwaters for so long that it had started to rot and smell,” he said.

Agus, who is the second-generation owner of the restaurant, said some of his workers were still stuck in Layang-Layang, Kluang, and could not return to work as the road was still cut off.

“We expect to fully open within the next two days and we hope that our loyal customers will be patient until then,” he said.

Kota Tinggi district officer Datin Paduka Hazlina Jalil hoped the flood mitigation project announced by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim would be able to resolve some of the flooding in the district.

“We have the Sungai Pemandi flood mitigation project in progress, which will be tendered soon and is expected to be completed by 2025. It will solve the flood issues in Taman Aman and Taman Mawai.

“For the Pekan Kota Tinggi area, we need the Sungai Johor flood mitigation project to start because in Kota Tinggi alone, we have 65 hotspots, of which 32 are flooded.

“If we can get this mitigation project started, we can solve the flood issues in those 32 areas,” she said.