Melaka flood: Villagers not thinking of relocating

MELAKA, July 10 (Bernama) -- Despite the recurrence of floods, the thought of relocating has never entered the mind of a pensioner who has been residing in Kampung Belimbing Dalam, Durian Tunggal for the past 30 years.

Abdul Rahim Halus, 58, said his house would be flooded following continuous heavy rain, but his family of six loved the village atmosphere and it has never occurred to them to relocate.

“This area will be hit by floods for almost every year, we couldn’t do anything other than adjusting to the floods whenever it happeneds and hope the authorities to take necessary measures to address the problem.

“My house was flooded up to three feet and it receded a day later. A few years ago we encountered the worst flood when the water rose up to the chest level,” he told Bernama here today.

A survey by Bernama found that most of the flood victims had started to return home since yesterday after seeking shelter at the temporary relief centre (PPS) to clean their house as the water began to recede in many areas in Durian Tunggal.

Meanwhile, another resident Zuraidi Mohammad, 38, said that many of his electrical appliances were damaged by the floodwater while his two motorcycles had to be sent to workshop for repairs.

He said he had to deal with many losses but still consider the disaster as a test but more importantly was the safety of his family.

“Usually as we started noticing that floodwater started entering the house, we would keep the important items in high places, however, some could not be saved,” he said.

Another resident Norliza Mohd Isa, 36, described the flood this time around as the worse so far as many items such as clothes, crockery and so on were covered in mud, even though it were placed in high places.

“I think perhaps one month is barely enough time for us to do the cleaning up. It is tiring because this is the second flood occurred in a few months,” she said.

The flash floods that hit the state for the past three days have almost recovered today as only one PPS still operating with 89 people from 20 families as of 1 pm today.

-- BERNAMA