New website to show Malaysian flood victims data

A new tool could help Malaysian civil servants and citizens find people who need help during floods. An NGO, Memerang Tracker, and the Kuala Lumpur Malay Chamber of Commerce are building a website that will show data on volunteers, vehicles, evacuation centres and flood victims.

“Through this mechanism, we can identify the victims who have not received assistance,” said Shariff Iskandar, Adviser to Memerang Tracker.

The website myitl.net/banjir is waiting approval by government authorities to launch. The team have also built an emergency power supply kit which can generate 240 volts of electricity from a car battery. After the floods last year which displaced 250,000 people in Malaysia, agencies are once again preparing for the year-end monsoon.

Some parts of the country - Bintulu district in Sarawak state, Ipoh city, and Baling district in Kedah state - have already flooded.

The government set up the National Disaster Management Agency in the Prime Minister’s Department in September to coordinate response to disasters.