LABUAN: A flood mit­ig­a­tion pro­gramme was car­ried out by the Labuan Pub­lic Works Depart­ment (JKR) fol­low­ing con­tinu­ous heavy rain and high tides at sev­eral vil­lages and res­id­en­tial areas.

Its dir­ector, Mohd Faizul Ali Hanapiah, said the ini­ti­at­ive was part of the depart­ment’s cor­por­ate social respons­ib­il­ity (CSR) efforts car­ried out in sev­eral parts of the island.

The flood mit­ig­a­tion pro­gramme was ini­ti­ated fol­low­ing reports of flood­ing in mul­tiple loc­a­tions, prompt­ing the depart­ment to identify and pri­or­it­ise the most affected areas for imme­di­ate inter­ven­tion.

“Dur­ing this cur­rent rainy sea­son, com­bined with high tides, a num­ber of vil­lages and hous­ing areas were affected.

“As part of our CSR, JKR per­son­nel went down to the ground to assess the situ­ation and imple­ment mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures where assist­ance is most urgently needed,” he told Bernama yes­ter­day.

Mohd Faizul said 10 tech­nical per­son­nel from the depart­ment were mobil­ised for the pur­pose.

He added that the efforts were sup­por­ted by machinery and equip­ment to carry out drain­age clear­ing, desilt­ing works and minor earth­works to improve water flow while redu­cing the risk of pro­longed flood­ing.

The CSR activ­it­ies were focused on Kg Sun­gai Labu’s beach­front, which was one of the areas iden­ti­fied as vul­ner­able due to its low-lying loc­a­tion and expos­ure to tidal influ­ence dur­ing peri­ods of intense rain­fall, he added.

Mohd Faizul said that the ini­ti­at­ive reflects the depart­ment’s com­mit­ment not only to infra­struc­ture devel­op­ment but also to com­munity well-being, par­tic­u­larly in assist­ing res­id­ents dur­ing chal­len­ging weather con­di­tions.

“JKR will con­tinue to mon­itor the situ­ation and work closely with rel­ev­ant agen­cies and local com­munit­ies to ensure mit­ig­a­tion efforts are car­ried out effi­ciently, espe­cially dur­ing the peak of the mon­soon period,” he said.

Res­id­ents in affected areas were advised to remain vigil­ant and to report drain­age or floo­dre­lated issues to the author­it­ies.