KUALA BERANG: Worried for the safety of his 14 farm animals during periods of continuous heavy rain, Mohd Rosli Mejas, 55, decided to spend the night in his cowshed at Kampung Pengkalan Ajal.
The cowshed, located 2km from Mohd Rosli's house, is not fit for humans to live in, but he had no choice as he is still traumatised by the flood disaster that affected his livestock back in February.
"I have been raising dairy cows and buffaloes in this cowshed since 2018. My village does get flooded each year, but not in the cowshed, except for this time (February) when the flood waters rose to the stomach level of the livestock," he told Bernama on Saturday (Dec 16).
"Alhamdulillah, none of my livestock drowned, but it (the incident) seemed to affect their health. They became thinner and did not eat. I had to get them medically treated after that."
The cowshed, built by the Terengganu Veterinary Services Department in the 1990s, is only 400 metres from Sungai Berang.
According to Mohd Rosli, Friday night (Dec 15) was the second night he and his wife had to put up at the cowshed.
They did not get much sleep, but they were worried that the cowshed would be flooded and they would be unable to rescue the livestock in time if they stayed home.
He said he did not dare risk moving his livestock to the nearby hills due to the strong water flow.
The father of two, who has no other location to build a temporary cowshed to move his livestock during flood seasons, hopes that no untoward incident will befall his family or livestock.
Kampung Pengkalan Ajal is one of the worst-affected locations hit by the second wave of flooding following the north-east Monsoon season, with 514 flood victims in the Hulu Terengganu district.
Four other districts affected by floods are Setiu (79 victims), Kemaman (205 victims), Dungun (569 victims) and Besut (183 victims), with 1,550 victims placed in 30 relief centres that have been opened in the state as of 10 am on Saturday. – Bernama
