THE Penang administration today said the Barisan Nasional federal government did not spend as much on flood-mitigation projects in the state since 2006 as claimed by its politicians.

State flood-mitigation committee chief Chow Kon Yeow said the Penang Drainage and Irrigation Department (DID) had asked for RM2.6 billion in allocation, but only RM443 million had been spent on projects under the 9th to 11th Malaysia Plans.

He said the money for Penang was greatly reduced compared with the requested allocation.

Refuting state Umno chief Zainal Abidin Osman’s claim yesterday that Barisan Nasional had spent RM1.49 billion on 10 projects to address floods in the opposition-controlled state under 9MP (2006-2010), Chow said only RM306 million was spent.

“There were many projects to be carried out with the RM1.49 billion allocation. But the components implemented were small, which also meant that many other components were not done.

“If they were implemented, the flood problem could have been addressed,” he told a press conference at Komtar today.

Chow said the RM193 million for flood-mitigation projects under 10MP (2011-2015) was also slashed to RM132 million after the projects started.

“RM125 million of the amount was spent on flood-mitigation projects. Perhaps, there were some savings.”

Under 11MP (2016-2020), the initial federal allocation of RM205 million was reduced to RM23 million, with only RM12 million spent.

Chow said the spending of RM443 million of the amended allocation of RM461 million under the three plans showed that many flood-mitigation projects in Penang were not fully able to handle flash floods.

“Zainal was quoting the original allocations, the estimated costs, in his statement to the media yesterday.

“He did not give details on the amended funds for the projects. But now, we know that the actual spending amounted to only RM443 million.

“He accused us of confusing the people, but he should not have hidden important facts when presenting the list of flood-mitigation projects by BN,” he said today.

Yesterday, Zainal said RM404.5 million was spent on flood-mitigation projects under 10MP, and RM150 million was recently approved by the federal government for the Sg Pinang Basin Flood-Mitigation Project under 11MP.

The Umno leader, who chairs the Penang federal action council, also accused the state government of having ill intentions aimed at confusing the people by questioning the federal government’s RM2 billion commitment to flood-mitigation projects in the state.

Zainal said it was “embarrassing” that Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng and Chow did not know about the projects when everything was known to the state DID.

Chow also noted reports yesterday of Natural Resources and Environment Minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar’s explanation that land acquisition problems were behind the delay in the Sg Pinang Basin Flood-Mitigation Project.

He said statements by both Wan Junaidi and Zainal clearly showed that the federal government played a huge role in implementing flood-mitigation projects.

“The state government has the right to demand that the federal government fulfils its obligation to solve the flood problem in Penang. They had all the projects planned out.”

Chow said Penang was not interested in fighting with BN, but was interested in the funds promised.

The Penang government and BN have been butting heads over funds for flood-mitigation projects after the state was hit by flash floods earlier this month.

The state government has asked BN to explain why RM1.7 billion in funds had not been channelled to the state for such projects.

The state said the recent floods were due to extraordinarily heavy rainfall due to Typhoon Doksuri, while BN has accused the Pakatan Harapan administration of failing to address the flood problem.

“These flood hotspots did not suddenly appear because PH is in power in Penang. The problem is decades-old, which explains the RM2.6 billion applied for by the state DID years ago,” Chow said.

He said the state government had implemented flood-mitigation projects via the state DID and local councils in 28 flood hotspots in Penang with overall satisfactory results.

“We have another 15 areas to look at. Plans are in the pipeline and will be implemented soon. Forty-three hotspots out of 77 will be address soon.

“The remaining hotspots will be address beginning next year. How good it would be if the federal government could give funds from its rolling plan to the state DID.” – September 26, 2017.