Govt ensures best efforts in assisting flood victims - Najib

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said the government will ensure that all efforts are made to assist all victims who are facing the floods this year.

Najib said he had contacted and discussed with Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, as Chairman of the National Disaster Management Committee, to intensify efforts to assist the flood victims especially those living in areas badly affected by the floods.

"I have asked the deputy prime minister to enhance operations to deliver aid in the form of food due to the difficulty to reach certain areas affected by the floods," he said in a statement today.

The prime minister said he had been informed that among the main causes for the difficulty in evacuating the flood victims and delivering food supplies to certain areas were due to the very high water level and strong current that posed a danger to vehicles and rescue boats.

In addition, there were evacuation centres that had also been flooded.

Najib said he had also been informed that efforts to send aid by helicopters were also affected due to the bad weather which made it difficult for the aircraft to fly.

He added that there were also situations where the helicopters could not land to drop the supplies as there were no suitable locations near the evacuation centres.

However, Najib said he was confident that the rescue teams comprising various government agencies and volunteers were working hard to provide the best aid including finding ways to reach evacuation centres to deliver the aid.

More than 90,000 victims are reported to be staying at the temporary evacuation centres following the floods that were hitting Kelantan, Terengganu, Pahang, Perak, Perlis and the latest, Kedah.