Soaring land price, flood the main issues in P'pang
Published on: Saturday, October 25, 2014
PENAMPANG: The soaring price of land and frequent flooding after only several hours' rain will remain the two constant challenges for residents here in the years to come, according to William Sampil, who retired as District Officer on Tuesday."When I first came to Penampang, the price of land was around RM4 per square foot. Now it has reached up to RM100 per square foot which make the cost of housing not affordable to many. Some condominiums can be priced up to RM500 per sq ft," he said.The soaring land price was in part due to the wanton filling up of padi lands by people, including from outside Penampang, who converted them into homesteads. It is said that from being a rice bowl area even in the 1950s, there are hardly anymore areas growing padi anymore.
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The flooding problem is also due in part to culverts being blocked or submerged by landfilling activities, with the soil usually obtained from the levelling of hills to the extent that there are now fewer hills left in the district.The water runoff from these new developments gush into the narrow outdated drains unlike before when they used to fill up the padi lands which acted as natural water retention ponds or wetlands. "Penampang is a flood prone area and most of the development starts with cut and fill leading to other problems," Sampil said.On another note, he is pleased that the Daily Express is now publicising Native Court cases, saying it would have the effect of providing greater recognition to the work of the Native Court, besides creating an awareness on the types of punishments that await offenders.
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"This is also positive for the education of the community," he said, noting that in the past, the Native Court barred the presence of reporters which led to accusations that the courts had something to hide.He said from his experience presiding at the District Native Court of Appeal, the cases were mostly about land inheritance and issuance of Native Certificate, and all decisions were affirmed by the Native Court of Appeal (wrongly referred to as 'High Court') when those decisions were appealed, he said.
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On numerous complaints that senior government officers are notoriously absent when the public go to the Penampang Council or District office to resolve matters, he said:"Senior officers always have many roles to carry out including conducting or attending meetings. When people come to the office seeking assistance but the officers are away, naturally they will be disappointed. "In the seven years and 8 months as the District Officer, my office door was always open." Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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