Friday, December 7, 2007

Is he serious? Sorry PM!

General

December 07, 2007 12:41 PM

Straighten Rivers In Johor To Mitigate Floods, Says Abdullah

SEGAMAT, Dec 7 (Bernama) -- Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi wants the meandering rivers in Johor to be straightened to facilitate water flow into the sea to prevent floods.

The prime minister said that during an aerial inspection from a helicopter while on his way here today he found that many rivers in the state meandered like a slithering snake.

The meanders slowed down the flow of water to the sea and could cause floods," he said at a meet-the-people session at Dataran Segamat here.

Abdullah, who is on a two-day visit to Johor accompanied by his wife, Datin Seri Jeanne Abdullah, expressed deep concern upon seeing the river water overflowing the low-lying areas following several days of rain.

"I'm very concerned with this situation. Hopefully the water will not rise further or the people will suffer," he said.

Abdullah said winding rivers could trap rubbish and ultimately become shallower.

He suggested to Johor Menteri Besar Datuk Abdul Ghani Othman to straighten the rivers.

"Call the Drainage and Irrigation Department staff, look at the map, try to straighten the meandering rivers so that water can flow quickly to the sea," he said.

He said part of the bends could be cut off and used for aquaculture projects like rearing fish to augment the residents' income while in areas near the towns the cut off bends could be turned into recreational areas like lakes for the benefit of the peopke.

He wanted the river straightening exercise to be carried out immediately saying that the allocation for it could be included in the mid-term review of the Ninth Malaysia Plan next year.

At the function, he launched a project to upgrade a 40km stretch of the Tangkak-Segamat road from two lanes to four lanes and presented land titles to 173 Felda Redong I settlers who had been planting oil palm there since 1977.

-- BERNAMA

Ok. Let we see how rivers at the state of Johor look like.

I am particularly interested in 4 ares of Johor. What I would like to see is how Pak Lah (and his advisors) came out with this idea of straightern the rivers to solve flood problem!


Pak Lah will be knows around the world, and probably will be awarded with Noble Prize, for "ini idea saya"! Antara idea Pak Lah yang lain termasuklah "makcik komputer", "WPI", "ECER", "NCER", Sabah CER, Serawak CER, dan lain-lain. Opps terlupa pasal monitoring tower yang kat highway tu... itu juga idea Pak Lah. Tahniah Pak Lah... you definitely have a lot of ideas...

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