KUCHING, Jan 10 — A total of 20 telemetry stations have been activated to work as part of a flood early warning system for Kuching district.

These stations would feed real-time data to the Sungai Sarawak Barrage, a nearly three-decade-old water flow controlling system that could evade or mitigate the impact of flood in particular around the city here.

"Real-time data of rainfall and water level in the upper, middle and lower catchments of Sungai Sarawak are transmitted every 30 minutes to the control room at the barrage,” said Sarawak Transport Minister Datuk Seri Lee Kim Shin when visiting the barrage today.

He said the telemetry stations are also equipped with sirens which would be sounded to warn villagers living within the vicinity to move to higher grounds as warnings of possible flooding.

"SRB (Sarawak Rivers Board) has also sent its team to all the villages where those telemetry stations are sited to remind the people of the siren and to move to higher ground if they hear the sound of the siren,” he said.

Lee’s visit to the barrage today was part of a check to ensure that the barrage and telemetry stations systems are functioning well to monitor the water level, thus providing advanced warning of possible floods.

Heavy rains were expected to hit Sarawak over the next few days which could cause several low-lying areas in the state to be flooded. — Bernama