Penang state refutes federal government claim about flood mitigation spending

GEORGE TOWN: The Penang state government has refuted claims by Penang Federal Action Council chairman Datuk Seri Zainal Abidin Osman that the federal government had allocated RM2.6 billion for the flood mitigation projects in Penang.
State Local Government ,Traffic Management and Flood Mitigation committee chairman Chow Kon Yeow said instead of that amount, only RM443 million had been spent.
"From the information that I have, the original allocation that was applied by state Drainage and Irrigation Department (DID) has been amended and the actual sum spent was only RM443 million," he said during a press conference at Komtar.
Chow said after the amendment made by the federal government, it has allocated RM1.79 billion in three consecutive Malaysian Plans (RMK9, RMK10 and RMK11) for the state to spend on flood mitigation projects.
He noted that, if the federal government had spent the full RM1.79 billion on the flood mitigation projects in Penang, the people in the state would have not faced the problem of flash floods.
According to Chow, the state government, even with limited funds, together with the local councils have spent a massive RM405 million on its flood mitigation projects.
"We have spent almost close to what the federal government has allocated for us, so by right they should have spent more but they did not do that," he said.
Chow said that the federal government has an important role to play compared to the local authorities in implementing flood mitigation projects in the state.
He said to date there are about 77 flood hotspots in the state, 28 of which have implemented flood mitigation projects. Through DID, the projects were completed and have satisfactorily resolved the issue of flash floods in the state.
"Currently there are about 15 more flood mitigation projects (that) are in the pipeline in resolving flash flood in the state, it should be completed by (the) end of this year," he said, adding that the state government will take charge of the remaining 34 hotspots.
On Monday, Zainal issued a statement that the federal government has spent about RM2 billion in the state flood mitigation projects.
He reportedly said that without this allocation, the flood problems in the state would have been much worse especially in the areas that flood mitigation projects had been carried out.
He also listed 25 federal funded flood mitigation projects under RMK9, RMK10 and RMK11, including the Sungai Pinang Flood Mitigation Plan (RTB) that total RM2.04 billion.