(ANN/THE STAR) – Malaysia has suffered significant financial losses due to floods, totaling MYR7.9 billion from 2021 to last year, as reported by Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi to the Dewan Rakyat.
The Deputy Prime Minister cited data from the Statistics Department, noting that the highest losses were in 2021, amounting to MYR6.1 billion. In both 2022 and the previous year, flood-related losses were MYR0.2 billion each.
Ahmad Zahid further detailed that vehicle damage caused losses of MYR1 billion in 2021, MYR18.8 million in 2022, and MYR22.3 million in 2023. The manufacturing sector also experienced substantial losses, with MYR0.9 billion in 2021, MYR8.7 million in 2022, and MYR10.3 million in 2023.
These remarks were in response to Zahir Hassan (PH-Wangsa Maju), who inquired about the direct and indirect losses from natural disasters over the past seven years. Ahmad Zahid added that approximately 900,000 people were displaced by natural disasters between 2017 and 2023, with the highest displacement occurring in 2021.
He said in 2021, the number of victims displaced numbered 208,672, or 23.3 per cent of the total number of victims recorded in the seven-year period.
He noted that Kelantan, Terengganu, Johor, Pahang and Sabah recorded the highest number of victims placed at temporary relief centres between 2017 and last year.
Kelantan recorded 202,339 victims displaced, followed by Terengganu (180,247), Johor (165,134), Pahang (149,046) and Sabah (50,858).
“Floods are the most common natural disaster.
“It had displaced a majority of natural disaster victims, with 99.5 per cent of them housed at temporary relief centres,” he said in a written reply.
