Johor Southern Volunteers now part of JDMC to address floods

ISKANDAR PUTERI: The Southern Volunteers (SV) team is now a member of the Johor Disaster Management Committee (JDMC) as part of the state government's preparations in facing floods.

Menteri Besar Datuk Hasni Mohammad said the preparations in facing floods in Johor should be comprehensive, including post-flood recovery whereby the SV team could be mobilised to provide aid, in line with enforcement agencies such as the Civil Defence Force assisting the flood victims.

"Our plan should cover both flood preparations and post-flood recovery to make it easier for groups such as the SV team to coordinate the donations from various parties to be given to those in need," he said in his speech after witnessing 20 local companies donating various necessities worth over RM400,000 to SV, here, today.

Meanwhile, Deputy State Secretary, On Jabbar, when met by reporters, said he welcomed the announcement made by Hasni, adding that the SV team was on standby to help the state government in preparing for floods.

He said there were 20,000 SV volunteers in each district and was confident that the number would increase.

"The Southern Volunteers' preparation in facing floods is divided into three phases, with the first phase being before the flood, such as collecting items for the use of flood victims.

"The second phase involves mobilising the volunteers to the flood relief centres and sending food supplies, while the third is post-flood recovery that focuses on cleansing work," he added.

On said that all the flood assistance items donated by the 20 local companies were part of the state government's preparations for the flood, where the items were gathered at the Johor Malaysian Games (Sukma) secretariat office.

"However, if we get an indication from the Meteorological Department that there will be no floods in Johor, we will send the necessities to the flood-hit states such as Selangor, Pahang and Melaka.

"We received an alert from the department that the state was expected to experience heavy rain this week," he said, adding that the SV team also assisted flood victims in Shah Alam and Hulu Langat recently.

-- BERNAMA