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Tuesday, November 07, 2017

Reasons for Penang's floods

FMT - Noh Omar: Broken dam, abnormal weather contributed to flooding (extracts):



KUALA LUMPUR: A broken dam and abnormal weather contributed to the devastating flood in Penang at the weekend, the Dewan Rakyat was told today.

Urban Well-Being, Housing and Local Government Minister Noh Omar said the weather conditions in Penang were unexpected.

“I was also told that a dam broke, causing water from outside Penang to flow into the state,” he said during the ministerial question time.

However, he did not name the affected dam.


Well, you have the two principal reasons for the horrendous inundation in Penang so it's time for distractors of Lim Guan Eng including people like HY (visitor to my blog) to stop blaming the Penang government for the current flooding being a consequence of state developments which involved hill slope cutting.

Don't conflate two separate issues.

This is not to say hill slope developments have not been responsible for anything, but which requires further investigations.

The horrendous landslide which killed nearly a dozen workers on site must be properly investigated but outside the dimension of the current issue of abnormal flooding. This is one example of why the flooding in Kelantan and Penang are different. The Penang state government has not indulged in massive deforestation.

I also recall that some years back the Penang government had 'borrowed' the recommendations and guidelines of hill slope developments from Hong Kong. What has happened to that?




3 comments:

  1. "The Penang state government has not indulged in massive deforestation."
    Do not just blame God or nature for the disaster.
    Yes , extreme weather occurred, But Human failings, especially Government policy, in Penang exacerbated nature's fierecesness the disaster.
    From approvals for hillslope development, lack of enforcement of environment laws , To kid glove treatment of certain parties who flout environment laws .i.e. Developers.

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  2. http://m.thestar.com.my/story.aspx?hl=Army-engineers-to-repair-broken-Sungai-Jarak-bund&sec=news&id=%7BBB860822-91A6-4855-A7DC-390FA1639793%7D

    The minister was either wrong or wrongly quoted. The breached structure was more accurately characterised as a dyke or bund, which prevents Muda River flood water entering low lying areas in North Province Wellesley.

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  3. i dun usually comment on something i know very little, for eg environmental, engineering, weapon, military etc, hence the hy mentioned here is definitely not me.

    however i did from time to time make comparison between current n past, or current vs current state govt, to find out what changes or improvement done.

    do u think lge/dap r that diff/improve against ktk/gerakan in term of hillside development, environmental n flood management? what happened seem to tell otherwise.

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