HUNDREDS of thousands of residents in Sabah’s west coast districts are facing displacement after their homes were flooded following heavy rainfall that has caused landslides, uprooted trees, and wreaked havoc in several towns and villages.

The floods have claimed the life of one woman, whose vehicle was swept away by floodwaters on Sunday.

Flooding in many areas of Tuaran, Papar, Kota Kinabalu, Telipok and Menggatal has left houses inundated, affecting some 300,000 residents.

Floodwaters trapped pupils in schools in Kimanis, Papar, and forced 21 people from six families to be evacuated from their homes to a temporary shelter in Bongawan, Papar, late yesterday.

Penampang and Kota Kinabalu have activated disaster management rooms as scattered thunderstorms are expected to last until Thursday.

Signs of flash floods began on Friday, worsening over the weekend due to incessant rainfall that lasted until yesterday.

Meteorological Department state director Asemi Daud said 86.8mm of rainfall was recorded in Kota Kinabalu alone, compared with the average 24mm recorded in the same period last year.

Twenty-two pupils from SK Darau in Inanam were trapped after the road leading to the school was inundated with floodwaters, making it inaccessible to small vehicles.

The Civil Defence Force rescued a child trapped at SK Kitobu in Inanam after floodwaters suddenly rose at the premises.

Penampang member of parliament Darrel Leiking demanded that the state government provide a long-term solution to the perennial flood problem in his constituency.

“Many of the drainage systems around (Kapayan) were built in the early 1990s and are no longer able to accommodate heavy rainfall.

“This has been exacerbated by massive development, which has taken away small pockets of retention ponds or swamps, as can be seen in Bundusan.

“If the chief minister and state ministers continue to sit on this issue, the people will continue incurring losses of millions of ringgit.”

In 2015, the state government announced the RM281 million Penampang Flood Mitigation Plan, but opposition politicians said little improvement could be seen. – August 15, 2017.