It is a rope that he ties from the stilt of his house to that of a neighbour’s house.
Malik, 33, of Kampung Melati in the state’s southwestern Beaufort district, doesn’t have a boat.
“So my preparation is to get my rope and tie it from my house to my neighbour’s home some 50 metres away,” he told FMT. “It is for us to hold onto so we don’t get swept away while wading through the floodwaters to get to my neighbour’s house, which is on higher ground.”
Reaching for the rope has been his automatic reaction each time he sees the waters rising.
Kampung Melati is among the host of villages seriously affected by the recent floods in Beaufort, which together with neighbouring interior Tenom district, has an ever-present flooding problem, almost a yearly fixture.
The Padas River, which flows through Tenom and Beaufort, will overflow its banks after days of non-stop heavy rain. On May 24, a total of 6,156 flood victims were evacuated to temporary shelters in both districts, with a majority of the evacuees coming from hardest-hit Tenom.
All shelters have now closed and villagers allowed to return home except for one hall in Beaufort which still houses 118 flood victims from 75 villages.
Malik, a security guard, has a house located just next to the Padas River. He said the villagers are worried every time it rains heavily. “We look out the window and worry about being evacuated again or how much losses we will incur this time,” he said.
He said the flood this year was the worst compared to 2014 when he and his family had to be evacuated to the relief centres.
Water flowed into his home up to thigh-level even though the house is on stilts and is raised six feet (two metres) from the ground.
“We are so used to flooding that villagers who stay on higher ground will ‘invite’ other villagers to stay with them for the time being if the condition worsens. People speak of gotong-royong to clean their villages … well, we do that too but our gotong-royong is on another level which is to help out each other (during floods),” said Malik.
He said some villagers would not evacuate, despite their houses being inundated, out of fear of being infected with Covid-19.
“They stayed in their garages which are detached from their houses but just metres away on higher ground, for up to two to three days until the water recedes.”
Another Beaufort villager, Edwin Chang, said the authorities have promised to resolve the problem for years, such as through sand dredgings to deepen the river and elevating the riverbanks. But so far nothing has come to fruition.
His worries are growing because his house in Kampung Luagan Rampang, also located next to the Padas River, has inched closer to the river due to bank erosion over the years.
“It is better if the government can relocate those with houses in flood-prone areas, especially by the riverside, to some sort of low-cost housing or provide the people with land lots. Even if it’s an empty plot, I think the villagers would not mind. We can build our own houses little by little,” said Chang, 47, a wireman who has five children.
Malik agreed, saying the floods will inflict higher government expenditure, from the constant rescue efforts and disaster relief provided to victims, compared to relocating villagers to low-cost housing or providing plots of land.