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THE Drainage and Irrigation Department (DID) is weighing up the possibility of having a trash boom set up across the width of the flood mitigation drain near the junction to Taman Onlok in Penampang.

In the meantime, the agency is appealing to the public in the Kobusak area to refrain from treating their housing drains like dustbins as their rubbish was finding its way into the Department’s asset.

City Hall, on the other hand, has called on the government concessionaire to step up efforts to check on the condition of the roadside drains along Jalan Sang Kancil Satu in Karamunsing.

This action was prompted by feedback about the lack of maintenance carried out on the flood and front-yard drains in these areas. The individuals, who spoke out about this problem, provided Hotline with the location of the affected structures. This information was forwarded to the respective agencies.

A DID spokeswoman said a check was made of its flood drain along the road leading to Taman Onlok, shortly after being contacted by the media.

“They noted bits of rubbish, including Styrofoam containers plastic bottles and bits of cut grass, bobbing on the water inside the structure,” she said.

Despite having reduced the capacity of the drain, she said, the foreign objects had not impeded the flow of the water completely.

“The water in the drain may not have been moving quickly but it is still being channelled away. No green scum was observed on the surface to indicate that the water had become stagnant.”

An excavator was deployed to this part of Kobusak a few days later to remove the silt and garbage from inside the drain, according to her.

The spokeswoman said the Department would consider having a trash boom put in place inside the structure, when its budget permitted.

“We had trash booms installed inside several of our flood drains around Penampang many years ago. Any which are damaged or missing will be replaced if we had the funds to do so.”

She said the agency’s contractor was facing an uphill task cleaning the DID drains in the district as household waste was regularly seen bobbing on the water inside.

She said the individual’s workers could fish out the rubbish from the water today only to find that it was back again by the following day.

“These items are being dumped by those staying upstream in this part of Kobusak.”

She said the Department would try to make the local community more aware of the inconvenience created by their “lack of discipline and inconsiderate” actions.

“Flood drains around the State Capital are generally cleared on a quarterly basis.”

She said exceptions were occasionally made when it came to such maintenance.

“If need be, the drains will be desludged even outside this schedule,” she said. 

“This is done on a case by case basis, depending on the severity of the drainage woes which are being addressed.”

The spokeswoman said DID personnel had been asked to keep tabs on the condition of the flood drain near Taman Onlok regularly to ensure that any irregularities were promptly dealt with.

City Hall has urged the government concessionaire to be equally diligent when it comes to the roadside drains within its rating-area.

A spokeswoman for the agency’s Landscaping Department explained that the firm was responsible for maintaining the front-yard drains, while the agency tended to those behind residences around the State Capital.

She said the former amenities were cleaned according to a fixed schedule, with the same being done to the latter once every six-months.

“Landscaping staff went to Jalan Sang Kancil Satu in the middle of April to verify the rate-payer’s concerns,” she said. 

“They confirmed that the section of the drain in front of her house was full of water hyacinths and other weeds.”

She said the company was apprised of these findings and advised to take the necessary action.

“Our personnel returned to this part of Karamunsing on Tuesday to find that the drain was being attended to.  Five of the firm’s workers used rakes to clear the water vegetation and later dug out the sediment from the base of the structure.”

The debris was later loaded onto the back of one of the concessionaire’s double-cabs, according to her.

She said City Hall staff were made to understand that it would take a few days to finish dealing with the drains on either side of Jalan Sang Kancil Satu.

The stretch spans a distance of some 519 metres from end to end.