Royal Town Arau flooded again....

As usual my home town Arau flooded again as it had been pouring over the past few days. I rang up my father this morning after reading newspaper reporting on the worsening of floods in the Northern states and fortunately my house was not affected but the Royal town Arau and my aunt’s house at Jitra was badly flooded. People in Jitra have been evacuated fearing that the floods may get worsen as it was reported that the water dam had to be released in worrying of its bursting due to too high water level.

Every year during monsoon period, flood is recurring but it’s a matter of big or small so people get use to it already and the government seems doing nothing about it. I remember when I was taking my SPM examination some twenty over years ago in that poor Royal town Arau, the examination hall was badly flooded. The exam supposed to be started in the morning but as we were waiting for the headmaster to bring the exam papers from Kangar, the water level kept on rising until the hall was submerged by 1 meter of flood water and our tables and chairs all floating around. Seeing that, the teacher asked all of us to carry our own table and chair to the second floor and we were all wet waist-down.

We kept on waiting until noon but the headmaster couldn't pass through Jejawi which was badly flooded and totally impassable by light vehicle and all of us were hungry, cold and shivering in panic. How to take exam in such condition? Well, some people living in the town may never have the bad experience of flood havoc but poor kampong boys and girls like me and my friends had seen the worst. Some of my friend's houses were completely submerged under flood water before.

And after so many years, floods is still recurring and everyone in the Northern state seems to get use to it. Hey it’s big or small only what, it will subside over a couple of days, the town folks may say. But what about those acres and acres of padi fields flooded and all went kaput? What about those sundry shops losing thousands and thousands of ringgit as all their barang all soaked by water? What about those furniture and electrical appliances of the ordinary family all damaged by floods?

The Prime Minister is so proud when he was announcing that the government is going to build another 100-storey high rise sophisticated building in KL and a few other high-tech related initiatives in the recent Economic Transformation Programmes. Perhaps he should look into it seriously to resolve those recurring issues such as floods affecting people in rural areas. I just wait and see if there is any minister visiting areas affected by severe floods in Kedah and Perlis and of course in Kelantan, a lot of the politician will be flocking there as the Galas by-election is just around the corner.