Frequent flooding angers Kota Kinabalu city dwellers

Residents have hit out at Kota Kinabalu City Hall (DBKK) for ignoring drains which are habitually clogged resulting in repeated flooding.

KOTA KINABALU: The drainage system in this city is in such a mess that each time there is a downpour, various commercial and residential areas are inundated, further rising temperatures among residents already angered by the lack of services.

Now city dwellers have had enough and are demanding action to end the repeated flooding.

Kota Kinabalu City Hall (DBKK) received some stick in one residential area where drains are habitually clogged and authorities ignore the situation.

“Every time there is a heavy downpour, all the drains in Kepayan Ridge area near here quickly overflow. Flooded houses, roads and sometimes cars being submerged, have become normal things here,” said Donny Yapp, a spokesman for the community in the area.

“We cannot live in this misery forever,” added Yapp who is also a deputy-treasurer of the Consumer Affair and Protection Society of Sabah (CAPS) and is the proprietor of a mini-market in the area.

He said residents in Kepayan Ridge are fuming that the authorities have failed to find a solution to the problem.

“DBKK perhaps should monitor their cleaning contractors to check whether clogged drains are being cleaned efficiently or whether there is a need to build a better drainage system,” Yapp said in a statement.

According to Yapp, on receiving complaints from residents and friends, he had gone down to several affected places during the current rainy season and found drains clogged with earth and rubbish.

“I have pictures of these places and I shall show them to the authorities and DBKK if they are interested,” he said.

He said many street level units of the old low-cost Kepayan Ridge apartments are badly affected by floods and residents say it has been like this for as long as they can remember.

“It is also not fair. These people continue to pay for their house assessment to DBKK every year but continue to live under such a sorry condition,” Yapp said.

The residents in Kepayan Ridge are not the only ones to be affected by repeated floodings.

Rapid, high-density development in the city by the government is also contributing to the problem.

City dwellers have long noted how developers seem to dictate planning new commercial or residential areas with City Hall having little say on the matter.

Drains that once had the capacity to draw off water from one area are no longer able to cope with the extra run-off whenever there is a downpour due to the rapid redevelopment of the same area which previous planners had failed to take into account.

The sporadic and ineffectual drain clearance in housing layouts by City Hall contractors has had little effect and residents are getting increasingly frustrated by what they see as a breakdown in public service maintenance.

City Hall for its part has remained quiet about the problem.