Flood victims in Sabah rise as more evacuated in Kota Belud

Flood victims in Sabah rise as more evacuated in Kota Belud

KOTA KINABALU: The number of flood victims in Sabah has increased following the evacuation of more residents in Kota Belud to temporary relief centres.

As of 8am today, the Sabah State Disaster Management Committee reported 1,399 victims from 488 families across three districts affected by flooding.

The number of victims in Beaufort and Tenom remained unchanged at 587 and 535, respectively.

In Kota Belud, the number of evacuees rose from 76 last night to 277 this morning, involving residents from five villages now sheltering at Dewan Kampung Lentigi and Dewan Masyarakat Tun Said.

Previously, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Sabah and Sarawak Affairs) Datuk Mustapha Sakmud said the prime minister had approved funding for Phase Two of the Flood Mitigation Plan (RTB) at Sungai Rampayan in October last year.

However, Inanam assemblyman Edna Majimbun and Darau assemblyman Azhar Matussin urged both the Federal and Sabah governments to immediately approve special emergency allocations to implement urgent and practical measures to address long-standing flood issues in their constituencies.

“For the record, flash floods occurred three times last year. This was not only due to heavy rainfall and high-tide phenomena, but more so due to poor management of drainage and sewerage systems,” they said in a joint statement.

The two Parti Warisan lawmakers also called on the state government to expedite the implementation of the Flood Warning System (FWS), noting that it could enable faster action by local authorities to reduce property and infrastructure damage and save lives.