VILLAGERS devastated by massive floods in Hulu Langat last December are slowly getting back to their feet, with repairs to their properties also completed.

They said they have nearly finished rebuilding the homes that were washed away by the floodwaters.

The villagers said the last four months had been difficult as they slowly started putting their lives back together, with financial constraints being their biggest worry.

Barber Roslin Abdullah, 61, said it was costly to rebuild.

“It is not cheap to repair the houses affected by the terrible flood. The villagers also had to repair their vehicles that were submerged in the flood,” he said.

Some 1,400 houses in Taman Sri Nanding were destoyed by floods in December following days of heavy rain.

Roslin said the government had helped the villagers after the floods with financial aid and other forms of support.

“We received RM1,000 from the state government and another RM1,000 from the federal government.

“We also received RM500 for electrical appliances and recently we received RM2,500 from the federal government to purchase furniture,” said Roslin.

Roslin said the residents were afraid each time it rained.

“The drainage system here is not the greatest and it overflows most of the time.

“We have made multiple complaints to the local authorities. Before the floods, no action was taken. It is only now that they are fixing it,” he said.

Retiree Mat Ali Satar, 65, said he had to pay almost RM17,000 of his own money to fix his house.

“The government did ease our burden but despite that we still had to use our money because the damage was severe.

“If I include the repair work that needs to be done for my car, the total cost would be about RM35,000,” he said.

Mat Ali said his house was only 85% done now due to the financial struggle.

“The pain we go through after the flood is worse than the pain during the flood.

“Cleaning up an entire house full of debris is not easy and forking out a big sum of money made it worse,” he said.

Mat Ali said he was extremely grateful for help provided by the civil societies.

“We have to give credit to all the NGOs out there for stepping up when the people were suffering.

“If it wasn’t for them, things would have been tougher,” Ali said.

Another resident, Khairul Azahar, 51, said his house was about 85% complete.

“I am taking it slow because I do not have the money to spend on repair work.

“My wife and I have already used a large sum of our savings for repairs to the house and car,” said Khairul, who is a salesman.

He added that if the floods had occurred before the Covid-19 pandemic, he would have managed to get his house fixed quickly.

“During the two year of lockdown, we used up most of our savings.

“Hopefully my house will be completed before Hari Raya Aidilfitri so that I can invite my relatives over,” he said.

A villager who only wants to be known as Shafiq said his home was nearly 80% repaired but did not expect to complete rebuilding anytime soon.

“I have nearly spent about RM38,000 on repairs.

“This has been the most challenging period for my family because we need both the house and the car to be fixed as we can’t travel to work without the car,” he said.

“For now what matters the most is that we have a place to sleep and a vehicle to travel to work.  I will work on the rest slowly once I have enough money,” said Shafiq.

The government assistance did help but he wished there was more aid.

“I might sound greedy in hoping for more but the damage was severe and it happened during a bad time,” he said, referring to the pandemic.

Heavy rain over the weekend of December 17-18 caused massive flooding in Selangor, Malacca, Negri Sembilan, Perak and Pahang.

The floods displaced more than 70,000 people and killed 54. Selangor was one of the worst-hit states. – April 7, 2022.