PM approves emergency allocation for road, disconnected bridge maintenance at Pensiangan-Arthur
KOTA KINABALU - Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has agreed to approve the emergency allocation for road maintenance and construction of a new bridge that had been swept away along Jalan Panabaan-Pensiangan in Nabawan.
This was following the the landslide on Sept 5 which affected residents in Kampung Salinatan and its surroundings as vehicles could not pass through the area.
Pensiangan MP Datuk Arthur Joseph Kurup said the residents have lodged complaints over the incident.
“I took immediate action by instructing the Nabawan district officer to come down to the scene with a technical team to monitor the current situation and prepare a report on the damages and estimated costs for repair works.
“Results of the observation found that there were damages to the road at Jalan Panabaan-Pensiangan caused by the natural disaster due to unexpected heavy rain that had also caused landslides in several locations causing the main road to be inaccessible by all vehicles,” he said in a statement, today.
The Science, Technology and Innovation Deputy Minister said the Nabawan District Office with the Public Works Department had implemented temporary maintenance works immediately so that villagers could use the main road besides increasing the power of heavy machineries operating on Sept 8.
“As the Pensiangan MP, I will always monitor the situation at the scene and suggested to the Nabawan District Office for the location around the scene to be declared as a disaster area for the National Disaster Management Agency (Nadma) to be able to channel immediate aid.
“After the Nabawan District Office completed gathering the report on the damages from the disaster, I immediately met with the Prime Minister on Sept 14 to table the report covering the damages and the expected costs for the repairs needed.
“The Prime Minister agreed to approve the emergency allocation for the implementation of road maintenance works and repair works for the broken bridge,” he said.
He said as a leader who was the voice of the people from the Sabah rural areas, he sympathised with the incident that occurred in the area.
“I will work hard to speed up the repair works to lessen the burden of the community in the area.
“On behalf of the Kampung Salinatan residents, I am grateful to those who provided emergency assistance and welcome any party who wants to provide assistance by contacting the Nabawan district officer as the District Disaster Committee for the purpose of coordinating and ensuring assistance reaches recipients,” he said.
It was previously reported that over 300 residents encompassing four villages in Pensiangan had their food supplies cut off for almost a week following the passage of the main road being inaccessible.
A total of 76 families were affected due to the incident that occurred throughout the roads in the district, including a bridge which was swept away by currents.
The villages affected were Kampung Salinatan, Kampung Tulir, Kampung Bolar Baru and Kampung Kasumunsing as well as teachers and staffs in Sekolah Kebangsaan (SK) Salinatan.
The 2.3-tonne food aid were channelled to the residents on Tuesday after a non-governmental organisation from FOL and firemen drove through the roads in an 18-hour journey.
