A Bomba personnel brings a child from Long Panai Baram to safety and higher ground.
MIRI: The Civil Defence Force is urged to set up teams in all flood prone villages in Baram to ensure affected villagers can move out early for evacuation.
Besides that, the federal government should initiate a thorough study on the cause and effect of flood in Baram, PKR Baram chairman Roland Engan urged.
“Floods will continues to occur in many villages if the government does not study further and take short term planning to dispatch Civil Defence staff at strategic locations,” Roland said when commenting on the frequent reoccurrence of floods at Long Panai and Long Bemang in Baram.
According to Roland, a team of emergency response team comprising Civil Defence personnel must be stationed at strategic longhouses including in Long Panai and Long Bemang to evacuate villagers to higher ground on time.
Bomba personnel conducting an evacuation for villagers at Long Panai.
He stressed that every time there was flooding, villagers had to move their belongings to higher ground themselves which sometimes took time, and this could be made easier if Civil Defence personnel were stationed at these villages.
“The federal government should take a bold move to study the flood prone areas in Baram for the short term and not just give away aid because the floods occur every year,” he added.
According to Roland, as a long term measure, the federal government should relocate the longhouses in low lying areas to higher ground to ensure they are not affected by floods anymore.
Meanwhile, he called on all corporate bodies including timber companies in Baram to participate in providing relief like daily needs to the flood victims.