Penang to beef up crisis management following east coast floods

By: Unknown on 4:20 PM

Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said the state was evaluating the response mechanism of the relevant departments and agencies in order to deliver quick and adequate aid should the state experience a disaster such as the recent east coast floods. – The Malaysian Insider file pic, January 10, 2015.The Penang government is looking at how it can beef up its crisis management plan in a bid to avert the scale of suffering experienced by victims of the recent floods that have ravaged the east coast states.Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said the state was evaluating the response mechanism of the relevant departments and agencies towards a disaster of a similar scale in order to deliver quick and adequate aid should the state be hit.“What has happened there should serve as a lesson to us," he said today. “It shows how important it is to have good administration so that aid can be rendered efficiently and systematically."Lim pointed to the storm that hit Balik Pulau on September 30 which left almost 500 houses damaged as another reminder how important it is to be prepared to respond to a disaster.“Instead of 500 houses, 5,000 could be affected. Are we ready to handle that? We must be prepared at the state administration and grassroots levels for such an eventuality," he said.He said the new Village Development, Security and Community Committees (JKKKs), which are being appointed by the state for a period of two years from this month until December 2016, will play a key role in executing crisis management.More than 200,000 people were evacuated at the height of the floods which hit Kelantan, Terengganu, Pahang, Johor and Perak over two weeks in late December, damaging buildings, agricultural land and infrastructures.Putrajaya said the cost of recovery from the disaster would be in the billions of ringgit.Lim was speaking while officiating the presentation of appointment letters to the chairmen and committees of the 128 JKKKs of Penang island at the Kompleks Tabung Haji in Bayan Lepas.Also present was deputy chief minister (II) Datuk Rashid Hasnon who called on the JKKK members to be the “eyes and ears" of the state government in helping to identify areas in their neighbourhoods where improvement was needed.Rashid also said the JKKKs were needed to convey the state’s welfare programmes to the people, in which payments are disbursed to groups such as senior citizens, the disabled, single mothers and students entering tertiary institutions, in addition to other programmes like the state’s microcredit loan scheme run by the Penang Development Corporation (PDC).A total of RM117 million has been allocated for the welfare programmes, including the state’s hard-core poverty alleviation scheme to assist households whose monthly incomes are below RM790.Lim also said the monthly allowance for each JKKK chairman would be increased to RM600 from RM500 for the new term, and meeting allowance for ordinary members from RM30 to RM40.The state has allocated RM12.6 million per year for the 291 JKKKs across the state which comprise a total of 4,350 members. – January 10, 2015.