Warisan deputy president and Penampang MP Darrell Leiking said announcements of flood mitigation works with huge funding had been made several times since 2015 but his constituency was still hit regularly by flash floods.

“Several flood mitigation works in Penampang were announced three years ago. In these three years, another two more announcements were made of flood mitigation works in Penampang and Putatan districts.

“There would seem to be delays in these works as the progress is not fast enough and there are many areas in Penampang still facing flash floods which caused losses and damage amounting to hundreds of thousands or millions if combined,” he said.

He was responding to a speech by Sabah Deputy Chief Minister Yahya Hussin at a staff appreciation and Hari Raya gathering for the department of irrigation and drainage (DID) here today.

Leiking said the DID had 10 years ago proposed a massive flood mitigation solution throughout Sabah, including in Penampang, Putatan and Kota Kinabalu.

“Probably Datuk Yahya just needs to implement these proposals once and for all and not on a piecemeal basis,” he said.

He said flood mitigation should start with less hill cuttings, less environmental damage, widening and cleaning of rivers to ease the water flow, and unclogging drains.

“All these may already be in the proposals made by DID but just need implementation.”

Yahya, in his speech, said the DID spent RM198 million for flood mitigating works in the 10th Malaysia Plan (2011-2015) and the allocation was raised to RM760 million under the 11th Malaysia Plan.

He said the flood mitigation plan at the Sungai Moyog in Penampang was given RM281 million under the 11th Malaysia Plan.

“This is the biggest allocation ever provided by the federal government for flood mitigation projects in Sabah,” he said.

The works were divided in two packages which were expected to be completed in 2020.