SEPANG, Dec 22 — Instead of ‘balik kampung’, volunteers from Universiti Malaya decided to forgo their special leave to provide assistance and help victims in flood-hit areas.
Muhammad Rasydan Junuh, 22, and his friends were among the early team of volunteers to go down to the ground and carry out post-flood clean-up works at Taman Desa Merpati here.
“Obviously, we can’t do this in one day, the weather today is also quite cloudy, it slowed down the process of drying wet items due to the floods but we will continue to wash dirty items,” he told Bernama when met here today.
Following the floods that hit several states recently, public universities are giving their students special leave for a week beginning Monday.
A team of Rakan Muda volunteers from the Youth and Sports Ministry were also seen helping to clean the residential area which has 175 houses that were badly affected by the floods.
A victim, Farizi Muhammad, 45, said following the heavy downpour last Friday, the water rose at a rapid rate up to chest level around 2 am on Saturday and receded after 12 hours.
“I managed to bring my wife and child out of the house and stayed at a friend’s home in a different area. I also managed to salvage important documents but my personal belongings including my laptop were damaged,” he said, adding that the company where he works had given him five-day special leave.
The recent floods were described as the worst experienced by the residential area in 15 years.
Taman Desa Merpati Residents’ Association president Abdul Halim Mohamed Yusoff said the situation was made worst when the nearby Sungai Jijan overflowed.
Source: BERNAMA News Agency
