Floods: Livestock breeder relieved cows, goats safe

JOHOR BARU: A livestock breeder is breathing a huge sigh of relief that his cows and goats in Kampung Maju Jaya, Jalan Kempas Lama here survived the floods in the area on Sunday.

Dalhar Mohamad, 64, said that at about 10am, the flood waters rose to a high level due to the overflowing of Sungai Tebrau, thus causing his home and cowshed to be inundated with flood waters.

“The water rose swiftly to one metre (m) as my house and cowshed are only 10m from the Sungai Tebrau, but fortunately the pen for my 12 goats was not affected while part of the cowshed for 10 cows was flooded,” he told reporters when met on Monday (Jan 8).

“We only gave up because we did not have time to move the cows and goats from the cowshed. Thankfully, they are all alive. However, the electrical equipment and furniture in the house have been damaged.”

According to Dalhar, who has been raising the animals with his son since 2015, the goat pen had been built higher than usual to facilitate cleaning as well as to avoid flooding.

The father of six said the floods also destroyed 200 chilli plants most of which he had been growing since three years ago.

Meanwhile, resident M Hairudin Yasin, 52, said he experienced losses of nearly RM10,000 after his house was flooded. He saw his electrical equipment such as the fridge, freezer and furniture floating in the flood waters in his house on Sunday (Jan 7).

“Fortunately, my car, motorcycle and documents as well as two cats were saved and placed on higher ground near my house,” he said.

“Hopefully, this flood will not last long and the parties responsible will be able to widen the bridge and river banks to prevent the river from overflowing in the future,” he added.

In the meantime, workshop assistant Azizzul Mohd Ismail, 35, said the flood incident also resulted in some goods and spare parts for motorcycles in the workshop being damaged or destroyed.

“I did not expect this area to be flooded, even though it is next to the Sungai Tebrau. It has been a long time since the water rose this high and the last time this area was flooded was in 2006,” he added.

As of 3pm on Monday, the number of flood victims in Johor was at 7,458 people in 50 temporary relief centres in Kota Tinggi, Kluang, Johor Bahru, Kulai, Segamat and Pontian. – BK