KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 23 — Malaysia suffered RM622.4 million in losses due to floods in 2022, with over 82 per cent of these losses suffered by the three states of Terengganu, Kelantan and Pahang alone, official data released today showed.
This is in comparison to the RM6.1 billion in flood losses suffered by Malaysia in 2021.
In the Department of Statistics Malaysia’s (DOSM) Special Report on the Impact of Floods in Malaysia 2022, the RM622.4 million losses due to floods in Malaysia in 2022 was stated as equivalent to 0.03 per cent against the nominal Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Out of the RM622.4 million losses due to flood last year, public assets and infrastructure accounted for RM232.7 million of the losses, followed by losses related to living quarters (RM157.4 million), agriculture (RM154.5 million), business premises (RM50.3 million), vehicles (RM18.8 million), and manufacturing (RM8.7 million).
The heaviest flood losses in Malaysia last year according to states were recorded in Terengganu at RM215.2 million and Kelantan at RM153.1 million, which collectively come up to RM368.3 million or 59.17 per cent when combined.
The third hardest-hit state was Pahang which suffered RM144 million in losses due to floods last year.
If all three states' flood losses last year were combined, it would come up to a total RM512.3 million or 82.31 per cent of Malaysia's entire losses.
These were followed by the states of Kedah at RM30.8 million in flood losses last year, Selangor (RM25.5 million), Negeri Sembilan (RM21 million), Perak (RM14.9 million), Sabah (RM6.3 million), Johor (RM4.4 million), the federal territory of Kuala Lumpur (RM3.4 million), Melaka (RM2.3 million), Sarawak (RM1.3 million), Penang (RM200,000), and RM6,000 in Perlis.
As for the districts with the top three losses due to floods last year, these are Hulu Terengganu in Terengganu at RM46.4 million, Pasir Mas in Kelantan (RM45.5 million) and Baling in Kedah (RM28.2 million).
These three districts actually suffered losses that surpassed the losses by entire states.
In terms of category of flood losses, both Terengganu and Kelantan came up multiple times as being among the top three states last year, with Terengganu suffering the highest losses for living quarters (RM84.2 million), agriculture (RM79.1 million), business premises (RM25.3 million), and manufacturing (RM7.1 million), and ranked with the second-highest loss for vehicles at RM3.4 million.
Kelantan was listed as the state with the second-highest losses for agriculture (RM66 million), living quarters (RM44.4 million), infrastructure (RM21.1 million), business premises (RM18.3 million), manufacturing (RM1.2 million) and had the third-highest losses in the vehicles category at RM2 million.
While Pahang had the third highest losses overall at RM144 million, the bulk of its losses was in public assets and infrastructure at RM140.1 million.
This also made Pahang the state with the highest losses in the infrastructure category, surpassing only Kelantan (RM21.1 million) and Selangor (RM19.3 million).
DOSM said the data for this report came from a special survey conducted from January 8 to December 31, 2022, with flood losses including the value of the damage for homes, vehicles, businesses and industrial premises, while data from government agencies were used for the damage suffered by the agricultural industry and the damage on public assets and infrastructure.
More details on the report can be obtained from the DOSM website here: https://www.dosm.gov.my/
