He said the National Disaster Management Agency (Nadma) is still assessing the actual amount of damage.

“As an estimate, we put the figure at almost RM1 billion,” he told reporters after officiating the rural and regional development ministry’s Ramadan programme at Masjid Sultan Mahmud in Bandar Al Muktafi Billah Shah here today.

Zahid, who is also the rural and regional development minister, said the losses included damage to infrastructure like roads.

Federal roads damaged by the floods are being repaired by the public works department while rural roads are being repaired by his ministry.

Zahid said assistance to repair houses and provide aid to flood victims was channelled by Nadma to the disaster management committees at the state and district levels.

However, he expressed regret over the apparent unfair distribution of aid in certain states.

He alleged that different political affiliations caused some flood victims to be not listed as recipients when aid was distributed at the state level.

“I think this should not have happened. We want to ensure equity and fairness for all victims but this did not happen in certain states,” he said.

Zahid also said that, during election campaigns, these state governments promised not to look at political affiliations when it came to the distribution of aid, but acted otherwise after winning at the polls.