Activist cries foul over no allocation for flood mitigation for Baram village

MIRI (July 12): Environmental activist and SAVE Rivers chairman Peter Kallang is disappointed that Putrajaya did not include Baram in funds allocation for flood mitigation and related emergency works.

Saying while it is heartening to know that the government has allocated RM950 million to reduce flood risk and for emergency works due to such disasters nationwide, he expressed disappointment that the much-needed fund to protect riverine properties in Baram from river erosion was not in the list.

“Long Ikang (village) or Baram as a whole doesn’t have any allocation in the much-needed budget,” he said.

He was responding to the news that RM410 million of that amount was allocated by Putrajaya for river conservation to reduce the risk of flooding, with RM316.3 million allocated to the Sarawak Drainage and Irrigation Department (DID) to reduce flood risks at 17 locations in Kuching, Betong, Mukah, Miri, Limbang and Samarahan.

Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof, who is also the Energy Transition and Water Transformation Minister, told Parliament on July 9 that the government had allocated RM950 million under the 12th Malaysia Plan for the conservation of rivers to reduce flood risk and for emergency works arising from such disasters nationwide.

Peter, who is from Long Ikang, said the villagers are among the Baram communities who have seen the destruction of various buildings like churches, storehouses, village shops, boat sheds and paddy barns, resulting from constant floods and erosion which have been getting increasingly frequent in the last 15 and 20 years.

“The erosion and landslide of the Baram River at Long Ikang made the distance between the banks of the river dangerously close to the longhouse.

”At some points, the edge of the house gutters is a mere four metres from the river banks. Erosion and landslides are continuing processes in the area if left ignored or not properly controlled,” he pointed out.

He went back to his village last Monday and found that the situation had remained unchanged, with some work for installation of gabion walls for mitigating the riverbank’s erosion halted and he was unable to find further information on this issue.

The winner of the 2019 Seacology Prize is unconvinced that a gabion wall will resolve this erosion and landslide problem at his village.

He prefers the Groynes method which is widely used in developed countries, and said the villagers had submitted a proposal to the government to use a similar method for mitigation and restoration of the river bank.

The recommendation was made by professionals consulted by the villagers, with the support of the B.E.A.CC.H, which is a group of Malaysian civil society movements.