KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 25 — Schools being built under the ongoing 10th Malaysia Plan will have an adequate number of showers and toilets to enable them double up as flood relief centres, the Dewan Rakyat was told today.
Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim said schools with such facilities had been built in Johor, Malacca, Perak and Kedah.
They would also be built in the other states, he said when replying to a question from Siti Zailah Mohd Yusoff (PAS-Rantau Panjang).
Shahidan said it was the normal practice to use schools as flood relief centres.
According to the Disaster Management and Relief Committee, he said, 2,331 or 46 per cent of the 4,969 designated flood relief centres were schools while the rest were penghulu complexes, community halls and such.
Shahidan said it would be costly to have flood relief centres just for that purpose as they would be idle when there were no floods.
Replying to a supplementary question, from Datuk Hasbullah Osman (BN-Gerik), he said Malaysia had one of the best flood management systems, even better than those in developed countries such as the United States.
He said the authorities in Malaysia were always ready to face the floods while help only reached flooded areas a week later in some countries. — Bernama
