BWI aid offers welcome relief for flood victims

In such a dire situation, post-flood assistance such as the Bantuan Wang Ihsan (BWI) announced recently by the government is a welcome relief.

One resident, Shahrul Ridzuan, 38, said the aid will provide some form of relief as his house was a total loss after being ravaged by the floods, as with many others in the residential area.

"I heard of the BWI assistance, though I've yet to apply for it because I have had to tend to other matters since the floods struck.

"At this moment, we're just grateful that we survived the flood, although we've yet to coordinate what we're supposed to do next because everything happened in a flash," Shahrul, who is self-employed, told Bernama when met at his home yesterday.

Another Taman Sri Nanding resident, Hamzah Hamad, 65, said that he submitted his BWI application on Monday.

"We're lucky that some of our stuff, which includes our vehicles, are still usable, but the same can't be said for many others here. We've been cleaning our house for two days now and even that isn't enough time to properly sort out what needs to be discarded and what remains usable. As such, we really appreciate the BWI," he said.

Bernama reported that the channeling of BWI amounting to RM1,000 for heads of households (KIR) affected by natural disasters would be implemented via cash handover at the State Disaster Operations Control Centre (PKOB), cash handover from house to house or online transfer.

Today, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said the government has channelled a total of RM34 million in BWI aid for distribution to 34,000 heads of households in flood-hit states as of Monday.

He said the aid had been channelled to the PKOB with the cooperation from the Implementation Coordination Unit (ICU) under the Prime Minister's Department (JPM) and efforts to find unregistered victims are also being done.