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.

KOTA KINABALU: Res­id­ents of Kam­pung Ram­payan Laut in Sabah are grap­pling with the after­math of the worst flood in over 50 years.

Incess­ant rain on Sat­urday even­ing caused flood­wa­ters to rise rap­idly in the vil­lage, catch­ing many res­id­ents off guard and leav­ing many homes sub­merged in waist-high water.

Jali­nah Md Jali, 62, said many vil­la­gers were unable to save their belong­ings, unlike in pre­vi­ous flood­ing incid­ents. “Dur­ing nor­mal floods, the water would usu­ally remain out­side and did not enter the house.

“This is because the water has to over­come the front door bar­rier,” she told Bernama while clean­ing mud and remov­ing water from her liv­ing room.

“On Sat­urday, the water reached waist height,” Jali­nah added. She did not have time to save her valu­ables and her fur­niture and elec­trical items were dam­aged.

“Ini­tially, every­one thought it would be just a nor­mal flood as the water level was low. “But the flood­wa­ters rose very fast. I am very sad because I have lived here for over 60 years and have never seen a flood this severe,” she added.

Jali­nah lamen­ted that Kam­pung Ram­payan Laut is now bet­ter known for fre­quent flood­ing than for devel­op­ment.

She said she hoped that local rep­res­ent­at­ives and rel­ev­ant agen­cies would find long-term solu­tions to flood­ing.

Another vic­tim, Jali Jawi, 52, said the flood­wa­ters came into the vil­lage from two dif­fer­ent sources sim­ul­tan­eously.

“The flood was big­ger and worse than before. The water came not just from the land but also from the sea,” he said.

He added that water began rising around 5.30pm and only receded early yes­ter­day morn­ing.

A check by Bernama revealed that flood­wa­ters had receded to ankle level, with most of the area still covered in thick mud, mak­ing clean­ing dif­fi­cult.

Dam­aged fur­niture and house­hold items car­ried away by the flood were scattered in front of sev­eral houses, while res­id­ents were busy remov­ing mud from their homes and dry­ing salvaged items.

Accord­ing to the Sabah State Dis­aster Man­age­ment Com­mit­tee, the num­ber of flood vic­tims rose from 282 on Sat­urday to 495 yes­ter­day morn­ing. The vic­tims are cur­rently sheltered at two relief centres.

In Kota Kin­abalu, 180 vic­tims from 46 fam­il­ies are cur­rently housed in a hall at the Al-munir Mosque, while 315 vic­tims from 113 fam­il­ies in Beaufort are being sheltered at the Selagon Evac­u­ation Centre.

KUALA BERANG: The dis­aster relief centre at SMK Matang here has been fully upgraded from a tem­por­ary centre to a per­man­ent one and is now ready for use, says National Dis­aster Man­age­ment Agency.

Its dir­ector-gen­eral, Meor Ismail Meor Akim, said the upgrad­ing works involved con­vert­ing an unused hostel block at the school into a per­man­ent dis­aster relief centre, car­ried out from July to Decem­ber last year at a cost of about RM907,000.

He said it is the third such centre com­pleted nation­wide, fol­low­ing the com­ple­tion of two sim­ilar centres in Johor – at Dewan Taman Kota Jaya and Dewan Arena Segit­iga in Kota Tinggi.

“We plan to cre­ate 15 per­man­ent dis­aster relief centres nation­wide, either through new con­struc­tion or by upgrad­ing exist­ing tem­por­ary centre facil­it­ies, and this is the third to be com­pleted after the two in Johor.

“We aim to ensure greater com­fort for flood vic­tims, and we also hope the centre can be util­ised out­side the flood sea­son so that it does not become a wasted facil­ity,” he told report­ers after attend­ing the han­dover cere­mony of the relief centre here yes­ter­day, repor­ted Bernama.

Meor Ismail said the relief centre, which can accom­mod­ate more than 200 flood vic­tims at any one time, is equipped with improved facil­it­ies, includ­ing dis­ab­il­ity-friendly toi­lets.

The centre com­prises seven rooms and a stor­age area that can serve as a for­ward base for essen­tial sup­plies and food dis­tri­bu­tion dur­ing flood emer­gen­cies.

Mean­while, he said all rel­ev­ant agen­cies are on full alert in pre­par­a­tion for the next phase of the north-east mon­soon, which is expec­ted to begin today.

“Sev­eral states are cur­rently exper­i­en­cing floods, and this is only the middle of the mon­soon sea­son. Another surge of heavy rain is fore­cast, and all agen­cies have been on standby since the early stages,” he added.

KOTA KINABALU: Jumlah mangsa banjir di dua buah daerah di negeri ini iaitu Beaufort dan Kota Kinabalu meningkat kepada 498 orang berbanding 190 mangsa semalam.

Mengikut info Pusat Kawalan Banjir Sabah hari ini mangsa membabitkan 114 ketua isi rumah di Beaufort dan 46 ketua isi rumah di Kota Kinabalu.

Dua pusat pemindahan sementara (PPS) disediakan kepada mangsa iaitu di Dewan Slagon, Beaufort dan Dewan Masjid Al Munir, Darau, Kota Kinabalu.

Dalam perkembangan berkaitan, cuaca di beberapa daerah di negeri ini, berada dalam keadaan tidak menentu dalam beberapa hari.

Jabatan Meteorologi Sabah meramalkan, hujan dan ribut petir kerap berlaku di hampir semua kawasan di negeri ini, termasuk Beaufort yang sedang dilanda banjir.

Sehubungan itu, penduduk terutama yang mendiami kawasan yang mudah dinaiki air dinasihatkan sentiasa berhati-hati dan pindah ke tempat selamat apabila ada tanda paras air meningkat. – UTUSAN