Operational readiness notice issued after continuous rain warning in S’wak starting Jan 11

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 8 — The National Disaster Control Center (NDCC) has issued a disaster operational readiness notice following alert level warnings of continuous rain in several areas in Sarawak issued by the Malaysian Meteorological Department (MetMalaysia) at noon today.

The National Disaster Management Agency (NADMA) said in a statement today that the state and district level disaster management committees in the affected areas must be activated and that the level of readiness to face impending disasters, especially in high-risk areas, must be increased.

NADMA said the committees must ensure that every relief centre is equipped with basic necessities and all on-site control posts had all adequate operational assets and are in good condition and ready for use.

Earlier, MetMalaysia had issued a continuous rain alert-level warning for several areas in Sarawak – Kuching, Serian, Samarahan, Sri Aman, Betong, Sarikei, Sibu, Mukah, Kapit (Song and Kapit) and Bintulu from Jan 11 to 13.

The department also said that the Mineral and Geosciences Department had reported an additional landslide in Sarawak, bringing the total nationwide for the Northeast Monsoon 2021/2022 period to 267.

The statement also said that the Public Works Department reported that there were landslides occurred at 54 locations throughout the country to date.

In addition, it added that the cleanup operation in Selangor was completed today with 607.51 tons of waste collected.

“Overall, some 83.5 per cent of cleanup work for phase one and 85 per cent for phase two involving Negeri Sembilan and Melaka has been done. The total waste collected for both phases was 2,926.13 tons so far,” the statement read.

Besides that, a total of 50,224 or 80.3 per cent of households have received their Bantuan Wang Ihsan financial assistance and another 12,300 households have yet to receive theirs. — Bernama