the sun! the sun! but……

date/time of typing: 5 oct. sunday, 11.45pm
when i woke up on a sunday morning at 10.00am, surprise, i spy the sun! (don’t lah laugh at me for waking up so late. sunday is the only day i’m off from work so need a good long sleep. beside i went to bed at near 3.00am).

oh the sun! after 3 days of incessant raining. i was so happy! but my joy was short-lived when at 12.30pm, suddenly the rain poured down without warning! and such heavy rain too! oh no! again! well the rain stop at about 1.30pm…. but at 4.30pm, it came again….. and oh yes does not stop. yes right now (11.45pm) it is still raining.

do you know that the flood in penang (and other northern states) had made it to CNN news? oh the whole world knows now! and of course if you go to the bernama site, you’ll also get to read lots on the flood/rain.

a news in the star paper particularly caught my attention. oh dear,i can’t find that news online, so have to type it out here. i like to highlight it because i believe the news report is interesting enough for discussion.

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The Star
5 October 2003

Delay in opening tidal gates ‘partly to blame’

PENANG: A delay in oepning five out of the six tidal gates at the S10 urban flood mitigation project in Macallum Street Ghaut is partly to be blamed for the flooding in Georgetown since Thursaday.

Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon said the gates were only opened at 9pm on Friday due to lack of co-ordination between the authorities.

“The tidal gates could not be opened due to co-ordination problems between the project’s contractor and sub-contractors as it has not been officially handed over to the Drainage and Irrigation Department.

“We also did not anticipate the heavy rainfall and the department had to intervene to open the gates,” he said during a press conference in Komtar yesterday.

Dr Koh said that once the gates were opened, the water level in George Town receded at the speed of one foot per hour.

He said a 12-month delay in the installation of six pumps at Phase II of the S10 project was also to be blamed for the flooding since Thursday.

Dr Koh said Phase II, which costs RM18mil, had been completed but the pumps had yet to be installed due to technical problems.

He also cautioned mainland residents, especially those in North Seberang Perai, of floods over the next two days as a result of downstream flow form the Muda river.

Pengkalan Kota assemblyman Lee Hack Teik ticked off the authorities for not expediting the completion of the S10 project.

He said the DIS must install the pumps at Phase II of the project fast because inner city residents had to put up with flood problems for way too long.

“There should not be anymore excuses from the authorities involved in the project, which had been delayed for far too many times,” he told reporters after opening a neighbourhood programme yesterday.

Lee said residents also complained that the one-way traffic system to disburse traffic exiting the Jelutong Expressway in Jalan Sungai Pinand had directed traffic to flood-prone areas such as Lebuh Macallum and Lebuh McNair.

He also said he had been receiving telephone calls from angry residents for the past three days about the flood problems.

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so what do you think? can you believe the CM?? blaming this and that except himself!! actually the heading itself made me want to laugh. ‘delay in opening tidal gates partly to be blame’ it says. first of all… shifting the blame, secondly the very word ‘delay’ there made one wonder what kind of work is the authorities doing.

first dr koh blamed the tidal gates, and said the tidal gates could not be opened due to co-ordination problem,

then secondly he blamed the delay in the installation of six pumps at phase II of the S10 project, and said the pumps had not been installed yet due to technical problem.

but why? why was there a co-ordination problems? why was there a technical problem? is this a sign of the authorities lackadaisical attitude? if there were problems, why didn’t address the problems earlier so that flood won’t occur, so that dr koh may not go blaming tidal gates and pumps for the flood!