KOTA KINABALU: An immediate stop to hill-cutting and creating water catchment areas are among solutions to end Sabah's recurring floods, says former chief minister Datuk Yong Teck Lee.
Yong, who is Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) president, proposed the flood mitigation and prevention strategy as it recovers from the latest round of severe flooding and landslides that left 13 people dead.
"It is essential for a new integrated approach to end this cycle of destruction by implementing flood prevention and mitigation projects that have been on the table for decades," he said.
Among other measures in the five-point strategy, Yong said there must be provision for immediate infrastructure repair and upgrades that must be prioritised.
"The strategy calls for the immediate repair and upgrading of existing flood-prevention gates and water pumps, while also designing and building new ones for each flood basin," he added.
He said water catchments with water retention ponds have already been identified for decades.
"We can learn from successful examples like the Likas lagoons, which were designed and reserved as flood mitigation ponds in the 1980s," he said.
He said the plan also required a stop to any hill cutting in sensitive areas like the Likas Conservation Ridge and other hills.
"Stakeholders have correctly identified that these green zones act as vital natural sponges, absorbing and regulating water flow.
"Disturbing them through excessive land clearing inevitably destroys this function, causing a rapid surface runoff of rainwater downhill and leading to severe, recurring cycles of floods and landslides.
"The strategy includes a large-scale programme of widening, deepening, and straightening rivers, modelled on past successful projects like the one at Sungei Likas in the 1990s and current works at Sungei Inanam and Menggatal.
"This work must also include the construction of concrete drains," he added.
Yong said that among other strategies was to build multi-purpose micro-dams to store excess water.
"This can then be used for mini-hydro, irrigation, and, during the drought season, as a water supply," he added.
Yong said the issue of funding should not arise as the recurrent losses, including losses in economic production, financial losses suffered by people, damage to infrastructure, and plummeting real estate values, were overwhelmingly greater than the public funds required for these prevention and mitigation measures.
"There are strong economic justifications for this development, and funding can be sourced through government allocations and bonds or private financing.
“What is needed now is the political will to execute this strategy for the long-term safety and sustainability of the entire state," he added.
