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Telipok flooded
By MUGUNTAN VANAR
KOTA KINABALU: Residents in suburban Telipok township here were hit again by floods Thursday night following an eight-hour downpour.
Left to clean up the a muddy mess yesterday shopkeepers and residents complained about the failure of the authorities to resolve the flooding problem that was causing them thousands of Ringgit in losses every time floods hit the area.
Flood waters rising to about 0.5m after the Telipok river burst its banks, following heavy water flow from the cut hills nearby affected two schools, a government clinic, Telipok's four-block double storey shophouses as well as at least three kampungs surrounding it.
"This cannot go on. The authorities must take urgent steps to resolve the problem," a sundry shop owner Lee Bang Chai said.
He added that in the last two years they had been hit by floods at least five times and sustained substantial losses each time.
A coffeeshop owner, who wanted to be identified as Wong, said that on seeing the flood water rise, they put up sandbags but it did not stop the water from entering the shops.
Heavy rains started around 3pm Thursday with mud flow coming in from the cut hills nearby.
By about 5.50pm, the water level rose quickly. By 6pm and many hawkers ran towards Telipok police station that was on higher ground.
Road links between Kota Kinabalu City and Tuaran were cut off at the height of the floods leaving scores of people stranded.
They only managed to return home by midnight after the flood waters begun to recede from 9pm onwards.
Kota Kinabalu City Mayor Datuk Ilyas Ibrahim when contacted Friday said that he had ordered his personnel to help in the clean up of Telipok town, the clinic and the school affected by the floods.
"We are assessing the problem and will discuss with the Drainage and Irrigation Department over the flood problem," he said.
The DID was in the process of broadening the Telipok river, he added. |
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Post time 21-6-2007 07:44 PM
Author
adedei.....
Post time 22-6-2007 02:59 PM
