Relief for folk after drainage upgrade

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SOME 300 households in B-Garden in Seberang Prai no longer have to worry about flooding each time it rains as the drainage system there has been upgraded.

State Agriculture, Agro-based Industries, Rural Development and Flood Mitigation Committee chairman Law Choo Kiang said the state recently spent RM228,000 to upgrade the drains in Tingkat Muhibbah 4, Solok Muhibbah, and its surrounding areas.

“The state Drainage and Irrigation Department had earlier given the funds to the Seberang Prai Municipal Council, which later appointed a contractor via open tender to do the job.

“The drainage upgrading work, covering a length of 110m, started early last month and will be completed by the end of the month,” he said after visiting the project site recently.

Preventive measure: Mayasbari showing the barricade she put up to keep the rainwaters from entering her house in B-Garden in Bukit Mertajam

Law said the former V-shaped drains in the area, which used to be 30cm-wide and 30cm-deep, had now been upgraded to U-shape drains that were 60cm-wide and 60cm-deep.

Berapit assemblyman Lydia Ong Kok Fooi said B-Garden is an old housing scheme which is located on a low-lying ground.

“I am glad that this long-standing problem has been finally resolved,” she said.

Resident S. Mayasbari, 59, said she could now heave a sigh of relief after encountering frequent floods in the area for the past 30 years.

Site inspection: (from left) Law, Ong, Seberang Prai Municipal Council Engineering Department technical assistant S. Gunasegaran and residents checking out the recently upgraded drains in B-Garden

“Floodwaters used to rise up to 60cm high inside my house, dama-ging my wooden doors and furniture.

“It was so unbearable that I placed a 30cm-high concrete barricade at my main door and back door entrances five years ago,” she said.

Another resident Gary Thu, 43, said due to the hilly terrain in the surrounding area, the rainwater usually flowed down to the houses on the lower ground in Tingkat Muhibbah 4.

“It floods whenever there is a downpour. The worst floods I ever experienced here was when the water-level in the drains rose up to 1.5m-high,” he said.

Another resident Chen Kee Choy, 38, said there had not been any floods in the area last month after the drains were upgraded.