BAU: Over 15,000 flood-affected families in the state will receive RM500 wang ehsan or compassionate aid each in stages until March 10.
Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said a total of 15,116 families involving 73,103 people statewide were affected by the recent floods.
It is expected that a total of RM7.558 million would be distributed to the affected families.
As of Tuesday, about 4,000 flood-affected families involving 14,996 people were relocated to flood relief centres throughout Sarawak.
However, 11,027 families involving 58,107 flood victims did not move to evacuation centres.
“We began distributing this RM500 wang ehsan for the flood-affected families in Sarawak a couple of days ago. We are targeting to complete this distribution by March 10 in Sibu,” Muhyiddin said during a meet the people event yesterday.
“About 80,000 families were relocated to relief centres in all flood-affected states including Kelantan, Terengganu, Pahang, Perak, Johor and Sabah. The government is allocating RM40 million for the wang ehsan to aid these families as they recover from the flood.”
Muhyiddin added that some 3,000 houses in Kelantan, which were totally wiped out by the flood would be rebuilt with an allocation of RM50,000 for each house at total estimated cost of RM150 million.
The federal government has also agreed to bear the repair costs for flood-damaged houses in all affected states with an allocation of up to RM10,000 per house, depending on the extent of the damage, said Muhyiddin, who added that more than 10,000 houses were affected.
At the event, he presented wang ehsan to 81 affected families from the Bau area.
On another note, he said the government would take a proactive approach to help lessen the burden of the people amid the rising cost of living.
“Now that fuel prices have dropped, the price of logistics should decrease as well including the price of supplies and services to the people.
“Soon, I will chair a cabinet committee meeting on the cost of living. We will monitor all the prices one by one. We will meet with all industry players, manufacturers and wholesalers to enquire on the price of their products. Considering that fuel prices have come down, their products should have lower prices than the usual as well,” he said.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Adenan Satem stressed that the government is very concerned about looking after the flood victims and helping them to rebuild their lives.
“The flood in Sarawak this year, although not as serious as Kelantan or Terengganu, is worse than usual,” he said.