KUALA LUMPUR: The upgrade and construction of several telemetric hydrological stations, sirens and web cameras for the flood forecast programme that had cost the government RM145 million between 2015 and 2022, were obstructed due to wildlife disruptions, rejection from the local population and the Department of Wildlife and National Parks.
The building of these stations was part of the National Flood Forecast and Warning Programme (PRAB), which was implemented to enhance and improve the capabilities of flood prediction models and warning systems through the application of more advanced, fast, and accurate technologies.
The Auditor General's report, which was released today highlighted that the programme plans to have a total of 154 new hydrological stations and upgrade a total of 203 stations or supply telemetric hydrological equipment including rainfall gauges, river water level gauges, discharge gauges, velocity gauges, soil moisture gauges, sirens, and/or web cameras to a few areas.
"Overall, a total of 347 (97.2 per cent) out of the planned 357 stations have been constructed and upgraded.
"Nine (5.8 per cent) out of the planned 154 stations for new construction and one (0.5 per cent) out of the planned 203 stations for upgrade or installation of new telemetric hydrological equipment were not implemented until December 2022.
"Further review of the Change Work Order found that this was due to wildlife disruptions, legal obstacles from the Department of Wildlife and National Parks, and obstacles posed by the local population," the report said.
The Drainage and Irrigation Department (DID) in several responses to the AG's office noted that apart from wildlife disturbances at one station, the construction of the new stations in some areas was disrupted due to slope instability.
"For stations planned for new construction, one was hindered by slope instability and the search for a suitable location.
"Additionally, four other stations had construction obstructed by the Department of Wildlife and National Parks due to forest clearance conflicting with National Parks laws.
"One station was situated near a bridge construction corridor and road construction by the Public Works Department, while another faced local resident objections and the relocation of residents to new settlements," the report said.
A total of 492 pieces of equipment were supposed to be installed across all 357 stations; however, as of Dec 31 last year, 13 telemetric hydrological devices have yet to be installed at 10 stations that are either pending construction or upgrades.
The Auditor General Datuk Wan Suraya Wan Mohd Radzi earlier revealed that Phase 1 of PRAB for three river basins in Kelantan, Terengganu and Pahang was unsatisfactory.
This, she said, despite the government spending RM145 million on Phase 1 of the programme between 2015 and 2022, the flood forecasting accuracy rate is only 5.6 per cent.
The cost for 13 pieces of these equipment was worth RM755,400.
DID, in several responses, mentioned their plans to utilise the unused equipment as replacements.
"Until Sept 2023, a total of 558 units (52 per cent) out of 1,071 replacements have been utilised.
"The remaining 513 units (48 per cent) will be utilised in upcoming projects," they said.