KOTA KINABALU, 19 September 2025:
To move beyond today’s immediate problems and break the cycle of recurring damages caused by floods across Sabah, the implementation of a comprehensive five-point strategy for flood prevention and mitigation is essential.
A new integrated approach is required to end this cycle of destruction by implementing flood prevention and mitigation proposed projects that have been on the table for decades.
The proposed long-term strategy includes the following key actions:
- Immediate Infrastructure Repair and Upgrades
The strategy calls for the immediate repair and/or upgrading of existing flood-prevention gates and water pumps, while also designing and building new ones for each flood basin.
- Prepare Water Catchment Areas
Water catchment areas with water retention ponds have alrwady been identified for decades. We can learn from successful examples like the Likas lagoons, which were designed and reserved as flood mitigation ponds in the 1980s.
- Disallow Destructive Hill Cutting
The plan must disallow any hill cutting in sensitive areas like the Likas Conservation Ridge and other hills.
Stakeholders have correctly identified that these green zones act as vital natural sponges, absorbing and regulating water flow. Disturbing them through excessive land clearing inevitably destroys this function, causing a rapid surface runoff of rainwater downhill and leading to severe, recurring cycles of floods and landslides.
- Systematic River and Drainage Improvement
The strategy includes a large-scale programme of widening, deepening, and straightening rivers, modelled on past successful projects like the one at Sungei Likas in the 1990s and current works at Sungei Inanam and Menggatal. This work must also include the construction of concrete drains.
- Build multi-purpose micro-dams
Finally, the strategy is to build micro and mini-dams to store excess water. This water can then be used for mini-hydro, irrigation, and, during the drought season, as a water supply.
Justification for funding
The justification for funding this strategy is economically sound. The recurrent losses, including losses in economic production, financial losses suffered by people, damage to infrastructure, and plummeting real estate values, are overwhelmingly greater than the public funds required for these prevention and mitigation measures.
This is an unavoidable expenditure because the hardship caused to the public by floods must be solved. There are strong economic justifications for this development, and funding can be sourced through government allocations and bonds or private financing.
What is needed now is the political will to execute this strategy for the long-term safety and sustainability of the entire state.
Yong Teck Lee
Former Chief Minister May 1996 – May 1998