_______________
Media Statement
by M. Kula Segaran
__________________

(Ipoh, Tuesday) : For more then 100 families residing at Taman Desa Impian (TDI) it’s just shear anxiety fear and worry when ever it rains. To day it was no exception except when most the men folks have gone to earn a living the rain pored!

It started to rain at 7.00am and by 8am the houses around TDI were below 2.5 feet of water. Almost all the TDI residents are from the lower income group.

We were informed about the flood by the residents and Sdr. Sum Cheok Leng the Bercham DAP Chairman and members left to the scene. We were shocked with the flood situation at TDI. I immediately called the Ipoh City Council or the Majlis Bandaraya Ipoh (MBI). After many attempts and after 20minutes of repeated calls I finally reached the MBI. but engineer En, Mustapha was not available. I left message with the Council staff about the precarious situation at TDI and they promised to sent their staff to attend.

Sometime in 1994 the residents started to move into the low cost houses. At that time there was a 7 acre of retention pond next to TDI. Unfortunately this 7 acre retention pond was alienated by the state government to a private developer for housing development. The whole pond has been filled and closed up and it’s on higher ground of least 5 feet as compared to the TDI houses. We have brought up this issue on the retention pond to the attention of the media and the state government.

Finally on 8thMay2002 the Perak Menteri Besar Tajol Rosli stated that “former mining areas especially deep ponds must be gazetted as open spaces and not filled for development purposes”.

On 27December 2003 the TDI residents and the MBI officials had a meeting at the MBI office. At the meeting attended by En.Raffie the then secretary of MBI presently the Mayor agreed to look into the grouses. Also the residents adopted the following resolutions and requested MBI to act on them which among others are 1) Pumps would be installed to pump out water which causes the floods 2) To consider compensation to be paid to residents by reason of the frequent floods 3) to alter the flow of water which presently flows into TDI.

Many a time the above matters were raised by the DAP at the State Assembly. On 23rd July2002 the Menteri Besar in reply to YB Keong Meng Sing Assemblyman for Menglembu stated that 1) the MBI on phase one of the flood elevation programmed will built retention ponds at the cost of RM300, 000 2) While acknowledging that floods are because of rapid development around the TDI area would also set aside that RM4.5million for the building of drains a pump house and related incidentals.

As regards the retention pond a pond was dug up near the TDI which had alleviated the flood problem for some time. This pond was sitting on a strategic area. Then about 2 years ago half of the pond was filled up with soil and the land was alienated to a developer to built 40 shop houses. Who are we to point the blame? Obviously the Menteri Besar’s office, the MBI and the land office chaps are to blame for these unnecessary acts of alienating the half of the retention pond area to private developer. Why waste money to built a retention pond and then have it given away for development. Many question the decision of the authorities in particular as to whether the alienation was done at arms length?

On 17/12/05 part of the walls of the drains built under the RM 4.5 million allocations just collapsed. When we brought to the attention of the MBI they refuted our allegations of sub-stand dared workman ship and negligence. MBI said the contractors would repair the walls of the drains immediately.

As regards the pump, when we visited the area to day we were given to understand that the automatic pumps malfunction most of the time. In fact to day the guards were not even there at the pump house and the authhomatic pumps were only functioning when the water flood water had entered the houses. Why isn’t there even a CCTV at the pump house?

Its high time authorities get to discharge their public duty faithfully. To date these public officers have caused more problems rather then solving the TDI resident’s issues. Why punish the lower income group who are the residents of TDI?

What karma have the TDI residents done to continue to suffer when ever it rains? When will ever their flood problems be solved by the authorities? These are the frequently asked questions by the TDI residents.

(15/5/2007)