GEORGE TOWN, Nov 10 — Penang Barisan Nasional (BN) chairman Teng Chang Yeow should work with the state government to secure funding for flood mitigation projects, state executive councillor Chow Kon Yeow said today.

The local government, traffic management and flood mitigation committee chairman was responding to Teng who yesterday said that both the state and federal governments were responsible for dealing with the issue.

"They (BN) are still the federal government in Penang, they can assist us to get the funding,” he said in a press conference during his site visit to Chowrasta market this morning.

The Penang Gerakan chairman yesterday said the state need not to rely fully on the federal government to resolve flood issues in the state as it is also responsible for flood mitigation.

The BN party also accused the state government of wasting the RM40 million it had spent to reduce floods between 2010 and 2015.

"We are managing flood mitigation in Penang as conscientiously as possible and to cover more areas so we could overcome the flash flood problems in these areas,” Chow said today.

He stressed that the Sungai Pinang flood mitigation project was solely a federal project as it was implemented by Putrajaya under the 7th Malaysian Plan so rightly, the federal government should continue with it.

"We have also applied for hundreds of millions of other flood mitigation projects for Bayan Baru, Bayan Lepas, Sungai Perai, Sungai Juru, Sungai Jawi and many more in the state,”

"So, we will continue to pursue for funding for these projects too,” he said.

He said even if Putrajaya were to approve the state’s applications, the projects will still be managed by a federal agency, the Drainage and Irrigation Department (DID), and not by the state.

He questioned why Teng is so worried about the Penang state government asking for funding from the federal government when the funds are meant to resolve flash floods in the state.

Chow then said more than RM100 million from developers’ drainage contribution was already spent in the last eight years on numerous smaller scale flood mitigation projects.

Among the flood mitigation projects the state government had undertaken included those at Bagan Jermal, Bukit Mertajam, Nibong Tebal, Hutton Lane and Jalan Residensi.