KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 28 — The Rantau Panjang district in Kelantan is currently facing unprecedented floods, with the main contributing factor said to be the delays besetting the flood mitigation project at Sungai Golok.
News portal The Star today reported Kelantan Deputy Menteri Besar Datuk Mohamed Fadzli Hassan as saying that while Thailand has completed the flood mitigation project on its side of the river, Malaysia has yet to even complete the initial phase, resulting in floodwaters overflowing the riverbank.
“We plead with the federal government to please complete the three phases of the mitigation works as soon as possible, for we are talking of the lives and livelihood of thousands of families here.
“Kelantan needs all the help it can get from Putrajaya. We in the state government are doing everything we can, but most of all, we need Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to fulfil his promise to complete the flood mitigation works that had started with previous governments.
“Unless the flood mitigation works are completed, this would be a never-ending problem every monsoon season. We need urgent action from Putrajaya,” he was quoted as saying.
He said over the past few days, hundreds of families were forced to evacuate their homes, noting that these families were evacuated four more times from temporary shelters due to flooding.
Pasir Mas MP Ahmad Fadhli Shaari, whose parliamentary constituency is adjacent to Rantau Panjang, said that the floods had “paralysed” the entire area.
“The priority is to get hundreds of families to the shelters as the floods this time around are really bad. It is worse than in previous years,” he was quoted as saying by the news outlet.
Former environment minister Datuk Seri Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man said the initial phase of mitigation works at Sungai Golok commenced in 2021 and was originally scheduled for completion by the third quarter of the current year.
He further suggested that the three phases could be executed concurrently to expedite the process, as each phase typically required around three years for completion.
Terengganu Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar added that the situation in the state had improved slightly, but the residents are currently grappling with the aftermath.
“The Terengganu condition is not as bad as in Kelantan. The floods in the state have already started to subside as of today.
“As of noon (yesterday), we had 2,503 families comprising 8,732 flood victims at 98 flood shelters in eight districts.
“Hulu Terengganu, Dungun and Kemaman are the worst affected areas in Terengganu, with the three districts having 2,846, 2,829 and 1,196 victims respectively.
“We are now managing the return of thousands of flood victims to their homes. They are currently at temporary flood shelters.
“We also need to assess the property damage, which is a big task,” he was quoted as saying by The Star.
