WITH 2,592 houses to build, the Post-Floods Joint Committee has its hands full and cannot afford to worry about politics, said committee member and Kelantan Deputy Menteri Besar, Datuk Nik Mohd Amar Nik Abdullah.

“Our main focus is to build houses that are considered a total loss: houses that have collapsed, been swept away or need massive repair.

“Kuala Krai [needs] the most with 1,600 houses,” he told The Edge Financial Daily.

The configuration of the homes is 800 sq ft (74.3 sq m), with three rooms and two bathrooms. Homes in low-lying areas will be built on stilts at an elevation of 2.4m.

The built-up is 660 sq ft but including the ground below the house, the total built-up will be 1,300 sq ft. The cost of building these homes is between RM40,000 and RM48,000.

Nik Mohd Amar said that while the federal government is footing the bill, the state government has undertaken to rebuild 300 houses from its own funds, while the State Islamic Department will rebuild another 300. It has started with 50 houses in Machang, 20 of which have been completed.

“This is the first time in our flood history that the government is replacing houses. Even when there was a big flood in Pekan, houses were not replaced,” Nik Mohd Amar said, explaining that the cost was too high for the victims to bear without help.

He said there is a division of responsibilities between federal and state governments, with the federal government rebuilding houses on land belonging to flood victims.

As for squatters and those without land titles, they will have to rely on the state to rebuild their houses.

“These are homes which once stood on road, rail and river reserves.

“We have identified several in Gua Musang,” he said.

Nik Mohd Amar revealed that Kuala Krai will pose a big problem as there are only a few areas which are available for houses to be built legally as many of the destroyed homes were squatting on state land.

“In town, there is no more space. For example, in Kampung Mengkebang, there are 1,000 acres (258,998ha) but it’s in the jungle, so how can we build there?”

He said squatters will not be allowed to return to their old spots.

“By law, these squatter houses and settlements are illegal. Only in Kelantan we are nice, in Kuala Lumpur they would have bulldozed these settlements a long time ago.

We are building them new homes, better homes in new settlements and even giving them land titles on the new piece of land. Staying near the river is dangerous,” he said. The state will find a place as close as possible to their former homes.

Those living off the land, meanwhile, will receive RM500 per household from agencies such as the Kemubu Agricultural Development Authority and the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute.

Nik Mohd Amar said rehabilitation of livelihoods will be the next target after housing needs have been settled by June.

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on March 2, 2015.