A scene all too familiar for Johor

JOHOR BARU: Flooding during the monsoon season is an annual affair, especially along low-lying areas, but Johor has also experienced two major floods in 2006 and 2011 which displaced almost 150,000 people and caused tens of millions of ringgit in losses.

The Great Johor Floods of 2006/2007 were attributed to heavy rainfall in Segamat towards the end of December 2006.

The floods later spread to almost all 10 districts statewide, displacing over 100,000 people.

The amount of heavy rainfall was described as something that happened once in almost 100 years.

The month-long catastrophe caused huge losses and claimed about a dozen lives.

Another major flood hit the state soon after the Tenang by-election in 2011, displacing almost 50,000 people with Segamat and Kota Tinggi among the worst hit.

Since then, the flooding has been occurring each year, impacting almost 5,000 people each time.

State health and environment committee chairman R. Vidyananthan (pic) said he had been busy handling the floods almost every year since being elected, as his constituency of Kahang was prone to floods.

“Each time, the state government always does its best to help all those affected,” he said.

He added that the state was not taking any chances and had identified at least 772 relief centres statewide which could accommodate up to 180,000 people.

“We have to be prepared for any eventuality as so far, at least four districts within Johor have recorded flooding with Segamat being the worst,” he said, adding that the other areas involved were Tangkak, Kota Tinggi and Kluang.

Presently, there are over 2,000 flood victims housed at relief centres in the four districts.

Access to at least six roads, namely Jalan Kampung Orang Asli Peta and Jalan Kampung Orang Asli Punan in Mersing; and Jalan Puting, Jalan Bukit Tempurung, Jalan Kuala Paya Balai Badang and Jalan Tumang in Segamat, have been cut off.On the warning of a high tide phenomenon in Batu Pahat and Pontian, Vidyananthan said they were carrying out patrols every six hours to assess the situation.

“In the event of a bund break in these areas, we have excavators and other machinery for repair works,” he said, adding that they would also spend about RM19mil to replace a 35km stretch of bunds with rock revetments.