KUALA TERENGGANU: All 40 telemetric stations in Terengganu will undergo major maintenance between now and October as the Drainage and Irrigation Department (DID) prepares to support the National Disaster Management Agency (NADMA) with real time information on flood situation.
Information from the telemetric stations which measures the volume of rain received as well as water levels in rivers would be transmitted automatically to the DID headquarters before it is shared with other agencies under NADMA, including the district offices, Fire and Rescue Department and civil defence.
“We will receive the information on hourly basis triggered by an alarm from the telemetric stations via a messaging application. All officers of agencies involved with flood relief will receive the same information at the same time,” State DID director Ir Idrus Ahmad told the New Straits Times.
He said the DID would be the first line of defence in a flood situation and as such the telemetric stations must be functional to enable agencies to respond immediately to evacuate victims before a flood worsens.
On whether the flood situation would be serious this year, Idrus said rainfall had been consistently heavy so far this year with more than 2,200 millimetres of rain recorded so far and nearly reached its annual range of between 3,000 millimetres and 3,400 millimetres a year.
“We have been getting a lot of rain this year. The amount of rainfall spread over the months was like the volume normally received in the month of December and January where Terengganu usually experiences big floods.
“But there was no big flood last year and early this year. However, rainfall had been consistent from January until today. As such, the Meteorological Department is forecasting a “normal” flood this year, unless something changes the weather pattern in the next four months,” he added.
Whether it was going to be a “normal” or extraordinary floods, Idrus said the DID would be providing real time information to NADMA to ensure residents in flood prone could be evacuated to relief centres at a moment’s notice.