Penang mulls underground water retention system to prevent flash floods

GEORGE TOWN, Aug 9 ― The Penang state government will study a proposal to build an underground water retention pond as part of a flood mitigation project.

Public Works, Utilities and Flood Mitigation committee chairman Zairil Khir Johari (PH ― Tanjung Bungah) said Lee Khai Loon’s (PH ― Machang Bubuk) proposal to build an underground water retention area is an interesting idea.

Lee had proposed that a similar system to Thailand’s Centenary Park where a 11 acres piece of land was turned into water retention area with an underground water tank that can store rainwater of about 3,785 cubic metres.

Zairil agreed that the system in Thailand was proven successful and in other countries too.

“It is a good way to store excess rainwater and it uses a release system into canals before the water is discharged into the sea during low tide,” he said in this winding-up speech today.

He said he visited Bangkok recently and was briefed on the flood mitigation projects in the city.

“There is only one issue with these kind of projects, the cost of building an underground water tank, called Kaem Ling, is expensive as it requires at least RM300 million,” he said.

He said maybe it can be made a requirement for developers to build underground rainwater retention ponds as a condition for planning approval.

On the Mengkuang Dam expansion project, he said the dam was scheduled for completion in July 2016 but it was fully completed on April 10 last year.

He said the Defect Liability Period (DLP) will end on November 16 next year and there were a lot of defects to be rectified.

“The RM60 million pump to pump water into the dam was defective and could not be used,” he said.

He said the state government is now discussing with the federal government on speeding up the project to rectify defects in the dam.

“The project is a federal project, not a state project,” he said.

Later, outside, Zairil said they need to first repair the pump to pump water into the dam first.

“We want to be able to fill the dam first then we will go from there,” he said.

He could not give a deadline as to when they can fully open the dam as it will take time to rectify the many defects in the expansion project.