More than RM20mil spent on repairing mountain damage
Published on: Friday, July 03, 2015
Kota Kinabalu: The Federal Government spent more than RM20 million to repair damages on Mount KInabalu arising from the recent earthquake that occurred on June 5."We must understand that after a series of aftershocks in Ranau, the mountain is physically no longer the same as it used to be and most of the passages that led up to the mountain are damaged," said State Community Development and Consumer Affairs Minister Datuk Jainab Ahmad.According to her, although they received lots of financial assistance from the people, the amount was not sufficient.
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"Imagine how much amount of cash the Federal and State government require to repair the damaged buildings, schools and surau," she said during the presentation of contribution to the earthquake victims from Felda Global Ventures Holdings Berhad (FGV) at Wisma Tun Fuad Stephens, here, Thursday. Apart from the earthquake victims and those involved in the mud flood incident, she said the Federal and State government had to spend about RM220 million every month to assist about 77, 000 unfortunate individuals.Jainab who is also the President of Sabah Council of Social Services (MPMS) said the MPMS Earthquake Fund managed to raise about RM350, 000 since June 7 to assist all victims involved in the disaster."On June 20, we donated cash worth RM53,600 to 163 mountain guides, four families of the mountain guides who perished in the earthquake and nine volunteers from the Sabah Santuary Lodge at Sabah Parks.
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"At first, we decided to set up the fund to help the earthquake victims but then we decided to proceed with it following the mud flood incident," she said, adding that their focus was to help those victims who lost their income sources prior to the recent disaster.They had planned to cooperate with the Ranau District Office to identify those who actually required assistance.
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Member of the Board of Directors of FGV Dato' Mohamed Suffian Awang said that the contribution was made as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme to help fellow Sabahans."We hope that through this donation, we will be able to reduce the burdens of the victims," he said, thanking all those who had made the programme a success. Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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