Selamat (right) congratulating one of the Civil Defence Department personnel after the conferment of ranks for officers in Seremban.— Bernama photo
SEREMBAN: About 10,000 Civil Defence Department (APM) personnel have been put on standby and would be deployed during floods.
APM deputy director-general of operations Datuk Selamat Dahalan said they have also boosted the coordination and communication system to facilitate the distribution of aid during such disasters.
“The National Disaster Committee had held meetings, chaired last month by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak an two weeks ago by minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim, to supervise flood preparations in each state.
“APM, at the state level has also held a Flood Disaster Management Committee meeting which was attended by the police, fire and rescue department, Drainage and Irrigation Department (DID) and other related departments to check on preparations in terms of logistics and the strength of staff,” he told reporters during the conferment of ranks for officers, here yesterday.
Selamat said APM together with the National Disaster Management Agency (NADMA) had also conducted training to prepare personnel for such duty.
“The training provided is to accustom their personnel to coordination, understanding of communication and capability of assets owned by agencies involved that could be utilised together.
“Our focus now is on preparations before the occurrence of disasters which includes food supply, identifying landing spots for helicopters, increasing relief centres and repairing available ones,” he said.
He also expressed his hope for the public to be proactive and take the necessary precautions and be prepared to face the floods.
“Identify and put aside equipment that need to salvaged. The best precaution is to move before the flood occurs, avoid panic, especially when the water has reached the waist level; complicating matters,” he reminded.
Meanwhile, in another development, Selamat also hoped that with the rebranding of the defence department as APM, three aspects, namely total number of personnel, assets and capacity will gain sufficient financial support. — Bernama