A woman wading through chest deep flood water at Kampung Sikog.
KUCHING: Residents of Kampung Mambong and Kampung Sikog have been advised to write in officially about flash floods which hit their area after heavy rain.
Bengoh assemblyman Datuk Dr Jerip Susil when contacted yesterday promised to bring up the matter to the relevant authorities for further action as soon as he received the official complaint from the villages’ headmen.
“It is better for the headmen of the affected villages to write to my office officially so that their problem can be referred to DID (Drainage and Irrigation Department).
Dr Jerip, who is the State Assistant Public Health Minister, said this to The Borneo Post when asked to comment on the flash floods that hit the two villages on Dec 30.
In the incident 79 families in Kampung Sikog and several from Kampung Mambong were affected by the flood following continuous downpour throughout the night.
According to the residents this was not the first time they experienced floods since the construction of the road leading to the nearby mountain which crosses over Sungai Simboh, one of the major rivers in the area.
They claimed that the construction of the road constricted the outlet for water from upstream because that portion that had been raised by several meters had prevented the water from flowing down.
“This caused the water to move upriver and start to inundate low lying areas. Prior to the construction of the road to the mountain we did not have such severe floods.
“The truth is we do experience floods even before the project but not to this extend where several houses were underwater so therefore I dare say that this problem is a side impact of the road construction to the mountain,” he said.
The road was for the Clinker Plant in Kampung Mambong to carry raw materials from the mountain used by the plant.
He suggested that the Department of Environment (DOE) or the Natural Resources and Environment Board (NREB) when approving and issuing the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report could have overlooked the consequence of constructing the road.
He revealed that the floods had claimed two lives, one each from Kampung Mambong and Kampung Sikog due to drowning in the flood water.