Its minister, Reezal Merican Naina Merican, said this allocation would increase as the floods in certain states had not fully subsided.

“This early allocation of RM50 million is especially for repairing public infrastructure but I wouldn’t say this figure is final.

“Some states have not recovered yet, including Segamat in Johor where there are still stagnant waters.

“So they (local authorities) will have to come to us on the planning they need to do. But in terms of long-term planning for bigger projects on irrigation and the like, there needs to be discussions between the state governments and the environment and water ministry,” he said.

He was speaking at a media conference in conjunction with the Post-Flood Mega Clean-up Programme in Taman Sri Muda, Section 25 here today, which also involved Selangor menteri besar Amirudin Shari, fire and rescue department director-general Mohammad Hamdan Wahid, and about 2,000 volunteers.

Reezal said his ministry would hold a joint press conference with the rural development ministry next week to give details on the total amount needed to repair and build new houses.

He said besides search and rescue work by the fire and rescue department, his ministry was also involved in post-flood operations.

He said SWCorp had managed more than 77,000 tonnes of garbage in Pahang, Negeri Sembilan, Kuala Lumpur, Melaka and Selangor as at Jan 7.

“An additional allocation of RM12.5 million had been provided by my ministry for solid waste management and public clean-up works in flood-affected states, including more than RM5 million in Selangor,” he added.

Today’s post-flood clean-up was focused on disposal of flood debris and clearing of clogged drains, with the operations divided into four zones in Taman Sri Muda – Zone A (field near Dewan Kamunting), Zone B (Tzu Chi recycling centre), Zone C (Jalan Ceria 25/113 field) and Zone D (field in front of Pangsapuri Andora).