PUTRAJAYA: 500 flood warning sirens have been setup along rivers nationwide by the Drainage and Irrigation Department (DID).
Its National Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre deputy director (Operations) Dr Salwa Ramly said the main function of these sirens is to warn locals of rising river levels.
"These sirens are capable of being heard within a one and two kilometre radius," she told reporters following an inter-agency engagement session with the media on northeast monsoon preparations at the Special Malaysia Disaster Assistance and Rescue Team (SMART) Base at Pulau Meranti here on Friday.
She said however there have been instances where these sirens had been vandalised and even went missing.
"We urge the community to help us take care of these assets so that we can continue to broadcast warnings when the water levels rise," she said.
Salwa said that they held meetings with village heads seeking their cooperation to notify DID if any devices were faulty so that immediate rectification work could be taken.
"We are also planning to add more sirens, especially for areas where there is no flood forecasting model.
"Flood forecast models can't be applied in certain areas because it depends on the type of floods that occur there," she said.
Salwa also advised the public to visit the web portal developed by the DID, https://publicinfobanjir.water.gov.my/ to get the latest updates on flood warnings.
"The portal was initially developed in 2002 and has evolved over the years," she said adding that they updated their warnings on the portal whenever they received notifications from the Malaysian Meteorological Department.