Izham: State may foot bill to repair privately-owned bridges if needed.
A SUM of RM68mil has been allocated for the state Drainage and Irrigation Department (DID) to undertake flood mitigation projects in Selangor.
These projects include upgrading water pumps, sluice gates and drainage at rivers and water bodies near flood-prone areas.
State infrastructure and agricultural committee chairman Izham Hashim said DID funding was disbursed annually.
He was responding to Datuk Abdul Rashid Asari (PN-Selat Kelang), who asked about funds to maintain drains in Klang.
MPK received a RM5mil allocation to repair broken drains in Klang. — FilepicIzham said the maintenance of drains in Klang came under the purview of Klang Municipal Council (MPK).
“The local council has spent RM4mil to undertake maintenance works, which have been carried out thrice this year,” he said.
The exco member also highlighted that MPK had spent RM5mil to repair broken drains in the municipality.
This, he said, was in addition to a RM700,000 allocation to undertake one-off upgrading works of privately-owned drains.
In a StarMetro report on Nov 13, MPK president Noraini Roslan said the local council had undertaken maintenance of drainage in anticipation of higher rainfall in coming weeks.
She added that MPK had also cleaned drains which did not fall under the municipal council’s purview, at a cost of RM200,000.
During additional question time, Datuk Johan Abd Aziz (BN-Dusun Tua) asked which parties were responsible for repairing bridges damaged during floods.
Izham responded that it depended on which agencies were tasked with maintaining the respective bridges.
“Some bridges are under DID, while others are under the Public Works Department. There are also some that are privately owned.
“The state government might foot the bill to repair a privately-owned bridge if there is a need,” he said.
He added that more than 20 bridges collapsed after the December 2021 floods.
