Johor intensifies efforts to reduce stagnant floodwaters in Batu Pahat - MB

JOHOR BAHRU, March 18 (Bernama) -- The Johor government is intensifying its efforts to reduce stagnant floodwaters in Batu Pahat district using water pumps, ahead of Ramadan month, next week.

Menteri Besar Datuk Onn Hafiz Ghazi said that although the flood situation in the state is gradually recovering, there are some areas in Batu Pahat district that are still submerged in stagnant floodwaters including Sri Medan, Parit Jelutong and Parit Raja.

He said the state government did not want the issue to continue for a long period of time like before and hoped it could be resolved before Ramadan.

“Alhamdulillah, I had the opportunity to inspect the flood water pumping operations in Parit Jelutong, Sungai Senggarang water intake and Air Asam Kumbang water intake (in Batu Pahat).

“(Thus), in order to speed up the process, the state government through the Department of Irrigation and Drainage has taken the approach of using water pumps in those areas.

“A total of 61 water pumps with a capacity of 2, 5, 10 and 20 cusec (cubic foot per second) are operating 24 hours a day and 12 more pumps will be added,” he said in a Facebook post today.

The Machap assemblyman also said that taking lessons from the incident, the state government is also working on other alternatives to resolve the issue, including deepening the main river in the district.

“The Southern Volunteers post-flood mission will also carry out post-flood works in the Batu Pahat district for four days starting tomorrow involving the local authority, youth organisations, NGOs (non-governmental organisations) and corporate bodies involving 531 volunteers,” he said.

A total of 21,079 evacuees are still housed in 83 temporary relief centres in Batu Pahat and Segamat, as of 12 noon today.

-- BERNAMA