PENAMPANG: The recurring and worsening flood problem here has prompted calls for urgent action, after continuous downpours once again submerged homes, paralysed major roads and displaced dozens of families.
The persistent threat of severe inundation highlighted long-standing structural issues, rapid development concerns and the urgent need for expedited mitigation projects.
Dr BosiFormer Kapayan Assemblyman Dr Edwin Bosi attributed frequent flooding in Penampang to rapid development.
He said the Penampang landscape has changed tremendously over the years, drastically affecting its natural gradient to the sea.
Citing geographical data, Dr Bosi said the average ground gradient from the low-lying urban centre of Penampang to the sea is approximately 0.22 per cent or a ratio of roughly 1 in 450.
Meanwhile, the main urban and floodplain areas sit at an average elevation of about 20 meters above sea level with a straight-line distance westward to the sea of roughly 9km.
“The extremely gentle downward slope towards the coast is a major factor contributing to the area’s susceptibility to slow drainage and flash floods during heavy downpours,” he said.
Dr Bosi pointed out that when development was minimal, vast low-lying areas in Penampang served effectively as natural water retention ponds.
Excessive rainwater, particularly runoff rushing down from the Crocker Range hills, was safely stored in these retention ponds before slowly discharging into the sea during low tide.
“These so-called retention ponds are almost gone due to rapid industrialisation and property development. Land reclamation coupled with poor drainage systems has led to the meeting of rainwater with the sea during high tide, resulting in backflow and flooding in Penampang,” he said.
He said just a few hours of heavy rain can trigger massive flash floods. One of the worst-affected zones is Kampung Kibabaig, where Jalan Datu Panglima Banting frequently becomes impassable due to the loss of natural retention basins and inadequate drainage.
“The surface water at Kibabaig does not discharge effectively into the monsoon drains and the Moyog River,” he added.
To tackle this, Dr Bosi said authorities must prioritise deepening, widening and clearing the Moyog River. He suggested that beyond flood mitigation, a cleared Moyog River could also serve as a transport route and open up new opportunities for tourism-related activities.
Furthermore, given Penampang’s low-lying terrain, he recommended implementing a combination of water gates and pumps as a robust engineering strategy, similar to the flood control system successfully used in Likas.
JoeEchoing Dr Bosi’s concerns, Solidariti Tanah Air (Star) Moyog Division Advisor Joe Suleiman urged the federal Madani Government to fast-track long-awaited flood mitigation projects targeting Sungai Moyog and Petagas.
Suleiman reminded authorities that approximately RM600 million had previously been approved for two key packages, Package 2 and Package 4, under the district’s mitigation initiatives.
Stressing that local residents have suffered immensely from constant flooding, he called for affected victims to receive fair financial compensation comparable to the disaster relief provided to flood victims in Peninsular Malaysia.
In the interim, Suleiman proposed an immediate operational fix to alleviate mounting water pressures.
He suggested that the flood gate installed at Tarawi, adjacent to the Holy Nativity Church, be opened up during heavy downpours, such as the severe weather witnessed recently to ease the rapidly rising volume of water flowing through Sungai Moyog.
“If this can be considered, perhaps we could better manage and examine the evolving situation on the ground,” he noted.
The compounding effects of these structural vulnerabilities were painfully evident when continuous rain from the afternoon through the night triggered widespread devastation across the district.
On Thursday, within just a few hours of heavy rainfall, villages such as Kampung Kolopis, Kibabaig, Tuavon and Penampang Proper were submerged under floodwaters reaching up to five feet deep.
Residents in Kampung Tuavon shared harrowing accounts of water rushing into their living spaces up to five feet high, destroying personal property and causing deep psychological distress.
Essential public infrastructure was also crippled. The crucial access road leading to the Penampang Polyclinic, located just a few kilometers from Donggongon town, was entirely cut off, submerged under three feet of murky water.
Compounding the residents’ bafflement, peculiar drainage patterns emerged in places like Kibabaig, where locals watched in dismay as floodwaters from the Moyog River aggressively gushed into neighborhoods and low-lying zones a full two hours after the rain had completely stopped.
The rising waters did not begin to subside until the early hours of the morning around 1am, leaving communities exhausted and demanding long-term structural remedies from the Government.
The Penampang District Disaster Management Committee officially declared the flooding a disaster at 10.40pm on Thursday following urgent reports from frontline agencies.
By Friday morning, authorities had evacuated 118 flood victims from 41 families to four relief centres. The State Disaster Management Committee reported that the Penampang Sports Complex relief centre was sheltering 40 people from seven families, while the Huguan Siou Hall centre housed 31 victims from 11 families.