Privacy partitions for flood relief centres

CYBERJAYA: Food kits and partitions at relief centres would be among the items to be introduced by National Disaster Management Agency (APBN) in preparation for the north-east monsoon that is expected to hit the country soon.
APBN director-general Datuk Zaitun Ab Samad said the agency would ensure that there are enough assets to be deployed district level with standard operating procedure to be implemented for relief efforts involving the relevant agencies.
"We are also integrating the radio communication between the agencies expected to be involved in a disaster situation, so that we can disseminate the right information to media and public promptly," she said, after visiting the National Disaster Command Centre (PKPB) at Pulau Meranti this afternoon.
Currently, she said, the agency has identified 5,112 relief centres with emergency stockpiles ready to be supplied from 565 forward-based stations, 56 mini depot and five main warehouses across the country.
Zaitun said that 50,112 relief personnel comprising of police, Fire and Rescue Department, Health Ministry and Armed Forces as well as 155,000 civil defence volunteers would be deployed, as and when required.
Asked about the food kit and partition items, she said: "We are organising these items after we learned from the experience during last year's flood crisis as it was not possible to cook in some situation and the flood victims also required bit of space for privacy."
"The food kit contains cookies, mineral water, instant food as oats and noodle soup and other food products, supplied by Federal Agricultural Marketing Authority (Fama)," she said.
She added that the agency is initiating a programme to reach out to the community at the flood-prone areas, "so that the community would know what to do when disaster hits them."
The command centre is manned by four personnel per shift around the clock to monitor any disaster situation including flood, tsunami, landslide and vice versa, by utilising the Government Integrated Radio Network (GIRN) across the 16 agencies for relief efforts coordination.
Public is encouraged to contact the 24-hour command centre's hotline number at 03-8064 2400 for an update on disaster situation or http://portalbencana.ndcc.gov.my/Portal/ for real-time information.
The newly established APBN was officially formed under the Prime Minister's Department on Oct 1, takes over from the National Security Council's flood and disaster management unit to provide wider scope and smooth relief efforts during any disaster situation.