Johor to identify flood prone areas statewide

Kota Tinggi residents evacuating with their belongings to higher ground due to rising flood waters. — Filepic

JOHOR BARU: The state government is carrying out a comprehensive study involving at least 65 critical flood prone areas statewide.

State Health and Environment committee chairman Datuk Ayob Rahmat said that most of the critical areas were in Segamat, Batu Pahat, Kluang and Kota Tinggi.

“Our earlier records show that we have 165 flood prone areas.

“These flood prone areas are those with people both in towns and rural areas.

“But some of these areas already have flood mitigation projects to prevent flooding,” he said, adding that the study would take at least six months to be completed.

He was speaking to reporters after launching a workshop involving 200 participants from government agencies, non-governmental agencies and youth groups on a flood action plan study.

“This is the first time the government is carrying out a comprehensive study. In the past it was just done at the district levels,” he said.

On how the government planned to tackle the issue once the study was done, Ayob said that it would depend on the state’s financial status and also urgency of the project.

“We are also doing this study as Johor has been hit by two major floods, which displaced thousands of people in 2006 and 2011,” he said, adding that the government wanted to list the areas that continue to be flooded despite many efforts to mitigate this.

On funding for flood mitigation and maintenance of drains and waterways, he said that it was from both the federal and state government.

“We allocate about RM30mil to RM35mil annually while under the 11th Malaysia Plan, we have requested for RM5bil from the Federal Government,” he said, adding that among them was for flood mitigation, dams and to mitigate soil erosion along beaches.