ABDUL Rahman Dahlan today denied he and his fellow Umno party mates were out of touch on the development of flooding in Kota Belud, saying his men was constantly on the ground to assist victims since the disaster struck.

“I have instructed my men to be on the ground and I was in constant contact with the District Officer.

“I have told them to provide any necessary help possible, even cash if need be, to make sure everyone remains safe,” said the Kota Belud MP.

“Although we welcome any help from others, but for Christina Liew to accuse us (for not being on the ground) is just ridiculous.

“I could be in Kota Belud but I was busy representing Malaysia for a function involving certain major projects in Singapore at the time,” he added.

Rahman joked at the fibreglass dinghy provided by Liew, who is the Sabah Pakatan Harapan (PH) chairman, saying not only the boat could barely fit two persons, with the Fire and Rescue department also questioning its safety.

“It was quite easy for the boat to tilt over,” he said.

Liew had slammed three Kota Belud Umno leaders, namely Rahman, Communications and Multimedia Minister Salleh Said Keruak and Dewan Rakyat Speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia for not visiting their constituents in time of need.

Over 1,800 residents from over 20 villages in Kota Belud had to be placed in six temporary shelters for four days earlier this week due to the flooding.

The flooding was the worst ever to hit Kota Belud in years.

But all three leaders attended a briefing on the flooding earlier today at the Kota Belud district office.

Rahman, who is also a minister in the prime minister’s department, said the flooding situation in the district was unavoidable as the ground structure was changed due to a deadly earthquake in June 2015.

He said the local rivers were destroyed and just a few minutes of heavy downpour will cause flash floods.

He said this was unlike the Penang floods, which was due to overdevelopment.

“This year alone, the district office has recorded a total of 70 flood incidents and six of them were quite major as it involves evacuation,” he said.

He said the government has allocated RM27 million to carry out short-term flood mitigation projects in Sungai Gurong-guring and another RM140 million to deal the problem in the long-term.

“Out of the RM140 million, RM50 million has been budgeted for this year for Sungai Kadamaian flood mitigation and the RM90 million onwards will be for 2018 onwards.

“I have already instructed the district officer to take a visit to the Economic Planning Unit (EPU) office next month to brief EPU on the matter. It is our hope when all this projects are completed in the next four years it would resolve the flash floods and future major floods,” he said.

He said unfortunately, Kota Belud residents had to constantly be prepared for more flooding in future until all the projects are completed. – December 16, 2017.