KUALA BERANG, Worried for the safety of his 14 farm animals during this period of continuous heavy rain, Mohd Rosli Mejas, 55, decided to spend the night in his cowshed at Kampung Pengkalan Ajal here.
The cowshed, situated about two kilometres (km) away from Mohd Rosli's house, is not habitable, but there was no choice for him as the breeder is still traumatised by the flood disaster that affected his livestock in February.
"I have been raising dairy cows and buffaloes in this cowshed since 2018. My village does get flooded each year but the waters do not rise in the cowshed except for this time (February) when the flood waters rose to the stomach level of the livestock," he told Bernama today.
"Alhamdulillah, none of my livestock drowned but it (the incident) seemed to affect the health of my cows and buffaloes. They became thinner and did not eat. I had to get them vaccinated after that."
The cowshed, built by the Terengganu Veterinary Services Department (JPV) in the 1990s, is only 400 metres from Sungai Berang.
According to Mohd Rosli, last night was the second night he had to put up at the cowshed, accompanied by his wife.
They did not get much sleep in those conditions but there was no choice as they were worried the cowshed would be flooded and they would not be able to rescue the livestock in time.
He said he did not dare risk moving his livestock to the nearby hills due to the strong water flow.
The father of two who has no other location to build a temporary cowshed to move his livestock during flood seasons, is hoping that no untoward incident would befall his family or livestock.
Kampung Pengkalan Ajal is one of the worst-affected locations hit by the second wave of flooding following the Northeast Monsoon season this time, with a total of 514 flood victims in the Hulu Terengganu district.
Apart from Hulu Terengganu, four other districts affected by floods are Setiu (79 victims), Kemaman (205 victims), Dungun (569 victims) and Besut (183 victims), with 1,550 victims placed in 30 relief centres that have been opened in the state as of 10 am today.
Source: BERNAMA News Agency