Penang Gerakan has queried why despite spending nearly RM40 million in flood prevention for the past five years, the state government has not been able to address the problem.

The party's state secretary H’ng Chee Wey pointed out that from 2011 to 2015, the Penang budget stated that RM38 million was spent to deepen rivers and on flood prevention.

"The money spent has gone to waste.

"The state government seemed to have done absolutely nothing although an average of RM2.5 million was spent between 2011 and 2015," H'ng said in a press conference.

H'ng said the Penang government should be held responsible for this as the people's money had been "thrown into the river".

On Monday, Penang experienced its fourth flash floods in a span of two weeks.

Dubbed the "worst flood in Penang history", the state government has been slammed for not putting in place proper flood mitigation strategies and policies.

But state executive councillor Chow Kon Yeow urged the federal government to speed up approval of RM350 million for the third phase of the Sungai Pinang flood mitigation project which was delayed since 2008, when Pakatan Rakyat (now Pakatan Harapan) took over the state.

Yesterday, Chow, who was also state DAP chief, thanked the media for highlighting the flood situation in Penang as Putrajaya had finally approved RM150 million for mitigation work to begin.

H'ng also chided state government leaders for saying floods are not due to overdevelopment as areas without development projects also experienced it.

He pointed out that muddy flood water was a clear sign of "excess development" and the soil’s inability to contain water.

“Look, I have lived in Penang since birth, back then we had floods too. But we did not have teh-tarik coloured floodwater like now," H'ng said.

“Muddy waters mean that catchment areas are affected, this could also mean that even worse floods may hit us,” H’ng warned.