KOTA KINABALU: Efforts are being made to gazette 21 more temporary flood relief centres in Penampang, said Datuk Ewon Benedick.
The Penampang MP said these centres include buildings like community or public halls in the many villages in the flood-prone district almost double the size of Penang Island.
Benedick, who is also the Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives Minister, said this was agreed in a Penampang district development action committee meeting on the floods.
“All this time, there is only one flood relocation centre which is at the Penampang Cultural Centre (in Donggongon) although floods occur in villages all over in Penampang,” he said when met in Penampang near here on Wednesday (Nov 13).
“I have requested and finally it has been decided by the committee that 21 other buildings in the district will be added and gazetted as relief centres during flooding incidents.
“This will enable villagers to be relocated to those centres as opposed to only the Penampang Cultural Centre,” he added.
Benedick said this will also prevent incidents where flood victims miss out on the RM1,000 flood assistance if they do not relocate to a relief centre.
On the Penampang flood mitigation project, he said package 1 and 3 were resumed end of last year after being delayed due to the refusal of residents affected by the project along the Moyog river to relocate, among other factors.
He said the project in Donggongon town which was delayed several years due to issues related to the relocation of utilities had also resumed late last year.
“Funding is needed for the relocation so, that’s why we addressed the issue for the whole of 2023 and now you can see work to widen and deepen the river has resumed.
“But what we want now is package 2 and 4 to complete the project and I have brought Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof himself to see for himself its progress earlier this year.
“I wanted to get his commitment to support his package 2 and 4 to be implemented under the 13th Malaysia Plan,” Benedick said, adding he had also officially written to the Prime Minister to get his endorsement for the two remaining phases.
