JANUARY 20 — The floods in Sarawak have been far less severe than what we saw on the East Coast, but it is by no means less of a worry.
When news surfaced that Limbang, my mother’s hometown, was also hit, I worried for my grandmother, who lived along the Lubai river, just a few minutes upstream of the blueprint-famous SK Ulu Lubai. Thankfully she was all right, as are my in-laws who live along the river in Kuching.
But sadly that is not the case for the unfortunate teenage girl who drowned early yesterday morning in the rough waters of Sungai Mukah when the boat she was in capsized.
Floods are a serious matter, especially for the villagers living along Sarawak’s rivers. Over the years the rainy season had always come with worries that water levels would rise just a little too high, just enough to enter homes and cause trouble.
On the first day of the year’s second king tide period; over 5,000 people were displaced, according to news reports. There had also been landslides and at least one incident of a collapsed road, according to the Fire Department’s official Facebook page for relief efforts.
While Chief Minister Tan Sri Adenan Satem was understandably obliged to urge calm and reiterate that the situation is safe and under control, we should not miss the gravity of the situation. Victims’ properties will still see damage from the rising waters and lives may still be easily lost with any misstep.
And irresponsible social media users recycling old flood pictures from seven years ago, showing more severe flooding, should be ashamed of what they are doing. This is hardly the time — indeed, when is? — to spread undue panic.
If you’re not helping out, the least you could do is not hinder.
Credit to the state government, they seem prepared. Authorities have been talking about being on alert since December. When the waters rose, evacuation was swift and there seems little element of surprise on the authorities’ side based on news reports.
But the worst may not be over.
While the State Disaster Relief Centre expects fine weather everywhere except Sri Aman today, we should not forget the king tide is still on until next Monday, according to the Sarawak Government Almanac, with tides as high as 6.3 metres on some days.
With that in mind there may be more victims being evacuated in the coming days, which means more need for food and other essentials. Timely help is key, especially if the state government needs help from the peninsula.
When I was in Kuching last month, discussing the disaster-struck East Coast, someone joked that when Sarawak’s turn comes in January, hopefully local politicians would match the RM2 million donated to the East Coast relief efforts. Right now there is no reason to think otherwise.
The cynic would point to the new state seats being hit such as Batu Kitang, where some politicians are now visiting to provide help. The optimist would look to the chief minister’s apparently unsolicited RM3 million grant to Sarawak’s 14 independent Chinese schools last October on top of the aid to the East Coast.
What should be on our minds now is what we are going to do about the king tides, a regular occurrence of at least twice a month. Some of the upcoming king tides this year would likely coincide with heavy rain. Certainly so for the ones around the traditional rainy periods of the year.
The chief minister’s generosity should extend to prevention in this manner, too. For the Sarawakians living along the river, they could do with one less worry when it starts raining.
* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.
