Compassionate aid for flood victims fully disbursed in five states - PM Ismail Sabri

KUALA LUMPUR: Five states - Kelantan, the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur, Melaka, Terengganu and Perak - have achieved 100 per cent disbursement of Bantuan Wang Ihsan (BWI) to heads of households affected by the recent floods, said Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob.

The prime minister said the BWI, or compassionate aid, payments for Negeri Sembilan had reached 82.7 per cent, Pahang (65.5 per cent) and Selangor (47.6 per cent).

The authorities were expected to finish disbursing BWI to all households affected by the first wave of flooding by Wednesday, Jan 5, he said in a statement today. Certain states have already been hit by the second wave of flooding.

He said as at yesterday, BWI had been distributed to 28,258 or 61.2 per cent of the 46,162 affected household heads while 38 next-of-kin of 51 people who perished in the floods had received Funeral Management BWI.

"To ensure a faster and more effective BWI distribution process, the Implementation Coordination Unit (ICU) has set up a Command Centre to do daily real-time monitoring beginning Dec 27, 2021," he added.

Ismail Sabri also advised those who received government assistance through Electronic Fund Transfer (EFT) to be wary of unscrupulous parties who might take advantage of the situation to scam them.

The prime minister said he chaired the Northeast Monsoon 2021/2022 Post-Flood Disaster Management Task Force Special Meeting (MTL 2021/2022) today and was given an update on the actions taken by the six clusters set up to manage northeast monsoon post-flood initiatives.

The meeting was attended by, among others, menteris besar, chief ministers, the Chief Secretary to the Government, ministry secretaries-general, state secretaries, the Chief of Defence Force, the Inspector-General of Police and directors-general of the relevant agencies.

Ismail Sabri also said the Housing and Local Government Ministry reported that as of yesterday, cleaning-up works for Kuala Lumpur and Melaka had reached 100 per cent, followed by Negeri Sembilan (95 per cent), Selangor (82 per cent) and Pahang (77 per cent), with an estimated 53,800 tonnes of flood waste having been managed using 2,730 units of machinery.

He said funds totalling RM50 million had been allocated to 32 local authorities (PBT) for undertaking repairs of public infrastructure and facilities, including socio-economic and safety works.

"The repair works and construction of new houses involved 32 PBT which have received a total of RM50 million," he said.

Ismail Sabri also said the Works Ministry reported that 895 disaster locations had been detected throughout MTL 2021/2022, involving floods, flash floods, slope failures, collapsed roads, sinkholes, and broken or damaged bridges.

He said rehabilitation initiatives would cost a total of RM967.2 million.

He said cleaning-up activities had been completed at 802 locations while permanent repair works would begin this month and were expected to be completed in June.

-- BERNAMA