PROGRESSIVE Democratic Party (PDP) president Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing has called on the authorities in Sarawak to stop blaming nature for the persistent flood woes affecting urban and rural areas.
The outspoken Member of Parliament for Bintulu, who is federal Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture and state assemblyman for Dudong, said poor drainage and lack of flood mitigation planning are main factors of floods in Sarawak.
"Stop saying that the swamps and heavy rain are causing floods.
"The drainage systems that have not been upgraded and flood mitigation projects that have not been improved are the causes of floods.
"Floods have plagued us for many years. Start improving the drainage. Upgrade the flood mitigation plans.
"Get things done, the rakyat has suffered enough," he said in his social media updates with his constituents after attending a flood-related meeting in Sibu.
Sibu and Bintulu are among the 26 districts in Sarawak hit by massive floods in late January and early this month.
Last August, Tiong acknowledged that the rakyat living in flood prone regions in Sarawak are suffering badly due to the flood woes that are getting from bad to worse by the year.
Tiong publicly expressed his sympathy for those who have to endure miseries so often due to the constant floods.
He had that time personally went to the flooded areas in Sibu district to see and feel for himself the miseries caused by the August floods.
"I personally visited several flooded areas in Salim-Sibu residential zones.
"The situation is indeed very bad as the flood waters even reached my chest; and I am 170cm tall!
"Imagine those who have to live like this and go through such sufferings each time it rains heavily.
"I also heard of people in rural areas who are trapped in such floodwater for hours during heavy rain.
"Are we going to keep on letting them suffer?
"The Drainage and Irrigation Department must go all out and look into the specific zones and solve these flood problems in the areas where floods keep on happening," he said. – February 21, 2025
