KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 8 — Penang lawmakers have been requesting for RM350 million to carry out flood mitigation projects but the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry says it can only give RM150 million next year.

Its minister, Datuk Seri Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar, said many states also requested funds, including Kelantan, Terengganu and Sabah, from the federal government for the same purpose and none had received 100 per cent of what they asked.

"So, if we give RM150 million next year. It’s still not a loss since the implementation of the project will not be immediate, like any other project, because they need to do studies, do the drawings and sort out the technical details,” he told reporters at the Dewan Rakyat lobby.

"It may take a while, so come 2018, they can ask for more.”

Wan Junaidi said there was never enough money when it came to remedying floods and the ministry would be allocating funds in stages.

"All ministries are asking for more (funds) but unfortunately we don’t have that in the budget. We cannot implement everything at one go,” he said.

"With whatever budget we have, we’ll just implement and see what happens next year and when this project is ongoing, they can ask for some more (funds).”

P. Kasthuri (DAP-Batu Kawan) had asked for the RM350 million allocation for the third phase of the Sungai Pinang flood mitigation project during Wan Junaidi’s winding-up speech, but the minister said he could not promise more than RM150 million.

He also said he did not want to politicise the floods issue in Penang, to which Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng (DAP-Bagan) concurred.

Lim said while he knew the allocation was RM150 million, he hoped the ministry would consider the full allocation request and he would fully cooperate with Wan Junaidi on the matter.

Wan Junaidi said the RM150 million allocation was part of Budget 2017, where the ministry had requested an estimated RM400 million for flood mitigation.

For Budget 2016, he said, the ministry received RM700 million for the same purpose.

"We try to accommodate some (states) because most of these flash floods are not our problem actually, it’s the state’s as well as local council’s problem,” he said.

"When the state’s and the local council’s problems are not addressed, we have to go in.”