PENAMPANG: The flooding problem here has become ridiculous when a 100-metre road between Kg Tanaki and Kg Nampasan is still under water 36 hours after Moyog River subsided to base levels and under a burning sun.
At least one car stalled trying to wade through while four-wheelers crossed safely, all because the road builders have installed a small pipe culvert to replace a five-metre width natural rivulet that joined the main river.
Internet reference states the culvert becomes an orifice flow once the entrance is fully submerged where in this case the water level was at least five times the diameter of the culvert.
An embankment failure also partly blocked the entrance, hence the flood in the former paddy field area was retained for more than 36 hours.
The failure occurred because the culvert design was without the standard wing-wall protections at inlet and outlet.
Penampang Member of Parliament Datuk Ewon Benedict and Kapayan Assemblywoman Janie Lasimbang came to inspect the site where Janie informed the local residents through social media that Syarikat Globinaco, a JKR road concessionaire, was called to clear the culvert obstruction and floodwater by 4pm.
However, a local resident informed the problem has been recurring and would only be solved when the road builders have installed a properly designed culvert under the road.
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