• SHIELDING SIBU FROM FLOODS: Wong (fourth left) chairs the Forum on Flood Mitigation yesterday. Seated from left are Lee Yu, Tiong, Siu Hieng, Prof Chen and four others from China.

Tai Lee Yu of Juru Jasa Consultant, Kuala Lumpur disclosed this when presenting a recommended masterplan on flood mitigation to the people of Sibu, as well as five flood experts from China.

The Forum on Flood Mitigation took place at the Public Works Department (JKR) office here.

Second Minister of Finance and Minister of Urban Development and Tourism Dato Sri Wong Soon Koh chaired the meeting.

"We recommend that bunds be built along the banks of Rajang River and Igan River as well as parallel with Seduan River, which are major rivers surrounding Sibu Town. This bunding may involve elevating the level of Jalan Lanang, Jalan Kampung Nangka and other roads along the bank of Seduan River.

"It may also include building monsoon drains along these roads, which can store tidal water.

"These bunding roads would prevent the spill-over of tidal water from the three major rivers into mainland Sibu,” said Tai.

Tai disclosed that the masterplan also recommended the building of 11 pump stations along these ‘bunding roads’, which also acted as flood-gates to control water into and out of the monsoon drains.

“Each pump station will have between three and six pumps and each unit is capable of pumping three cubic meters of water per second,” said Tai.

He said that the building of bunds would not excessively raise the flood water levels on the opposite banks of Rajang and Igan rivers as, “bunding would only raise flood water level by about 50 millimetres, and the effect is ignorable.”

Tai pointed out that dredging the Rajang River and Igan River beds would cost about RM1.60 billion while building deep and over-sized monsoon drains to store flood waters would drain away the underground water, and this would result in greater ground subsidence at most places in this low-lying Sibu Town.

This, said Tai, would pose danger to the existing houses and buildings.

“Our opinion is that only minimal bunding can reduce further ground subsidence in Sibu, which has a population of about 200,000,” said Tai.

In his opening remarks, Wong told the audience that the government had allocated RM400 million for flood mitigation in Sibu Town. He said the amount would be disbursed in stages.

“Therefore, today we want to share with Sibu people the studies, findings and recommendations of our local consultants as well as foreign flood experts from China, five of whom are with us here today, so that we can have a better picture on flood matters. We also want to hear your views,” said Wong.

The five Chinese flood experts are Professor Chen Zhichang and senior engineer Luo Xiaofeng both from Nanjing Hydraulic Research Institute (NHRI) in Hujuguan, Nanjing and Sun Feng of NHRI International Cooperation Office in Guangzhou Road, Nanjing, together with chief Professor Zhou Hai and senior engineer Chen Hong of Shanghai Waterway Engineering Design and Consulting Co. Ltd of China Communications Construct-ions in Pudong Ba Dao, Shanghai.

Also present at the briefing were Sibu Municipal Council (SMC) chairman Datuk Tiong Thai King, Pelawan assemblyman Vincent Goh, Bukit Assek assemblyman Wong Ho Leng, Drainage and Irrigation Department (DID) Sarawak director Wong Siu Hieng, JKR Sibu Divisional engineer Vincent Tang, UCA Sibu president Datuk Lau Cheng Kiong, Temenggong Tan Sri Dato Sri Tai Sing Chii, prominent local businessmen, community leaders and members of the press.