KUCHING: Two packages under the Sungai Sarawak Integrated River Basin Project will be tendered in two weeks’ time, which will resolve several flash flood issues in the city.
Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) Women Chief Kho Teck Wan said the land acquisitions had been done and the Department of Irrigation and Drainage (DID) Sarawak will call for the tenders of these flood mitigation packages/ projects.
For Batu Lintang, she said two detention ponds; with 1.5-acre and 1.9-acre each, two reinforced concrete (RC) drains and culvert have been proposed for the flood mitigation at Jalan Batu Lintang.
The project, she said, is expected to take about two years to complete and will resolve flash flood issues near southeast of Jalan Batu Lintang; namely Lintang Park, Taman Kelly, Taman Wingli, and Lorong Batu Lintang 8.
Meanwhile, another project, which involved a 1.9-acre wide detention pond and new 640-metre RC drain have been proposed to be constructed at the Sarawak General Hospital (SGH).
“This will resolve the flash flood problems at the hospital, especially during heavy downpours,” she said.
“It is also estimated to take about two years’ time and once completed, the detention pond area will be turned into a public walking park,” she explained.
Kho, who is also a political secretary to the Premier of Sarawak, said this after visiting the two sites with DID Sarawak deputy director Law Wee, engineers and consultants today.
Also joining them were the Kuching South City Council (MBKS) Mayor Datuk Wee Hong Seng, Batu Lintang assemblyman See Chee How and Kuching North City Hall (DBKU) engineer Zaidi Pathi representing DBKU Mayor Hilmy Othman.
According to DID, the proposed flood mitigation projects will resolve the flash flood issues at Jalan Batu Lintang and Sarawak General Hospital, however, they are not designed to prevent flood due to phenomenon of high tide and drainage blockage.
Earlier, Kho also said the Sungai Sarawak Integrated River Basin Project was a federal funded project under the 11th Malaysia Plan approved in 2016 to mitigate flooding in the greater Kuching area.
However, the much-needed flood mitigation plan was put under review by the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government after the 14th General Election (GE14) in 2018. After much delay the project was finally given the green light to resume in 2020.
