Penang’s RM300m flood mitigation projects to start 2017

GEORGE TOWN, Dec 27 — Penang is expected to begin 10 flood mitigation projects worth RM300 million in total in the middle of next year, state executive councillor Chow Kon Yeow said today.

The local government, traffic management and flood mitigation committee chairman said the third phase of the RM150 million Sungai Pinang project, allocated by Putrajaya, will take another nine months before physical works start.

"As for the nine flood mitigation projects worth RM150 million by the Penang state government, open tender for about four of it will be called as early as March," Chow told reporters after attending a Drainage and Irrigation Department (DID) Awards ceremony this morning.

He said two special committees have been formed to implement the nine state funded projects, a technical committee headed by the DID director Sabri Abdul Mulok and a steering committee headed by Chow himself.

Chow expects these nine projects — six in Central Seberang Perai, one in North Seberang Perai and two in the southwest district of the island — to resolve some of the flash flood issues in the state.

"These high impact projects will take two to three years to complete so we expect it to reduce the number flash flood hotspots in the state as it progresses," he said.

Penang now has 45 flood hotspots spread out throughout the state with most of it concentrated in the northeast district of the island and central Seberang Perai.

On top of the nine high impact flood mitigation projects, Chow said the state will continue to approve another 50 to 60 big and small projects to be funded by drainage contributions from developers.

He is confident that the number of flash flood hotspots in Penang will be reduced in another few years.

"In areas where flood mitigation projects have started, flood incidences have already reduced so we hope that with the implementation of more projects, the flash floods hotspots will also be reduced," he said.

As for Phase Three of the Sungai Pinang project, Sabri said they will be appointing a consultant to come up with a detailed design and conduct soil investigations.

"We hope to call for tender for the project by October next year and actual physical works are expected to start in the first quarter of 2018," Sabri said.

Phase Three of the Sungai Pinang project is expected to take two and a half years to complete and is expected to resolve flooding issues in the low lying area.