State governments urged to hold flood relief simulations
KUCHING: The need to hold f lood relief simulations must not be taken lightly by all state governments due to high possibility of floods during the current monsoon season, said federal Women, Family and Community Development Minister Dato Sri Rohani Karim.
She pointed out that such simulations must be held to ensure high level of preparedness when facing floods, including in states with no history of major floods occuring.
“It is very important to ensure efficient implementation of steps coordinated by the respective state governments with the various agencies. The failure to implement such steps will cause relief missions to the victims to be less effective and not done smoothly,” she said yesterday.
For Sarawak, she said her ministry had carried out one such disaster simulation and training in Sri Aman on Sunday.
She explained that the Social Welfare Department (JKM), which is under her ministry, is now prepared for f lood relief by preparing 80 big capacity evacuation centres throughout Malaysia, and identified 2,334 schools and 3,019 community halls nationwide with the capacity to handle 1.59 million flood victims.
She said JKM through the federal government has prepared five depots, 133 stores and 527 forward bases to keep stocks of basic needs for flood victims.
“Early preparedness will allow JKM to implement its role effectively whenever disaster strikes in a predictable situation. The ministry through JKM has four roles and responsibilities already drawn out under the National Security Council, namely to prepare evacuation centres, to prepare and distribute assistance in the form of food, clothes and other basic needs to the victims, to register the victims for rehabilitation purposes and to provide guidance and counselling to the victims.
“The implementation of welfare services by JKM is listed under the Concurrent List of federal government and state government,” she said.
On the big floods which hit Penang recently, she commented that one of the issues was the setting up of many evacuation centres which did not follow proper planning.
She explained any evacuation centres must be set up based on priority and on genuine needs to avoid confusion during flood relief efforts.
“The state government should know better about the situation in their own state. The ministry takes serious view of the floods in the north eastern part of Penang because there was no simulation held there before this.
“The setting up of flood evacuation centres which are all over the place and not according to proper plan will delay the delivery of assistance and relief, and also create confusion particularly during stressful situations,” she said.