KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 8 – Communication and Multimedia Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Shabery Cheek said a preparedness month will be held in high risk areas to face future flood disasters.
He said the campaign which was expected to be held in September or October each year was aimed at preparing communities at every level if a flood disaster took place in their respective areas.
“Preparations to face flood disasters must start at the bottom. Flood victims need aid in terms of food, clothes (and) helicopters to evacuate. But where do we send the aid, where are the helicopters to land?
“All these have to be decided at an early stage at the individual, family, district and state levels,” said Ahmad Shabery, who was a guest on the programme ‘Landscape: Flood’ aired by Radio Television Malaysia (RTM) Wednesday night.
He said preparedness at the locality level required a simulation to face disasters up to the worst case scenario to enable the public to be aware of the actions needed to save lives and property.
In the meantime, Ahmad Shabery said the ministry had also asked the Multimedia Development Corporation to develop an information portal on centres for evacuation and the collection of flood aid supply to facilitate volunteers and non-governmental organisation in extending aid to flood victims.
“I praise the spirit of Malaysians who are willing to venture to the flood areas to help the victims. But from the stories that I hear, they did not know where to put the aid and to whom they are to be handed over to,” he said.
In the one-hour programme, Ahmad Shabery, who is also Kemaman Member of Parliament, also shared the preparedness measures taken in Kemaman which was regarded by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak as having achieved a very high level.
The minister said 69 flood relief centres with a capacity for 40,000 victims had been prepared much earlier to prepare for a worst case scenario during the monsoon season.
He said three helicopter landing areas other than a food storage and daily requirements depot were set up to facilitate aid to flood victims in the district.
“It is not the time to deliver supply when the flood inundates, as routes may have been cut off. The food supply should already have been delivered to the relief centres before the floods,” he added.
