KUCHING, March 8: The Malaysian Family Hardcore Poverty Eradication (BMTKM) Programme will be implemented in April this year, says Prime Minister Dato Sri Ismail Sabri Yaakob.
He said the programme would involve 480 pilot localities throughout the country with the involvement of all parties, especially the state governments.
“The programme aims to eradicate the hardcore poor by 2025 with the first phase involving 80 pilot localities across the country.
“The second and third phases will be implemented from September to December, followed by the fourth to sixth phases which will be implemented in 2023,” he said in a statement after chairing the 138th Menteri Besar and Chief Ministers’ Meeting (MBKM) today.
Ismail Sabri further said through BMTKM, the government would use several approaches such as setting up a special Poverty Unit at the federal, State and district levels.
The government will also create an integrated and centralised poverty database, enhance the ‘bottom-up’ approach programme through a whole-of-nation approach as well as implement poverty solutions at the grassroots level.
The meeting has also deliberated on disaster management strategies where it has decided on 11 short-term solutions and nine long-term solutions.
Among the short-term solutions decided was to seek cooperation from the state governments to ensure the readiness of flood mitigation infrastructure such as floodgates, pumps and generator sets are at optimum levels.
Others include maintaining, deepening and cleaning drainage systems and flood reservoirs; upgrading 516 siren stations and 155 existing webcam stations and developing 361 new webcam stations; upgrading 100 weather observation stations using high-tech equipment which can issue real-time weather forecasts and warnings; and enhancing the ability of the myCuaca application for the efficient and effective delivery of critical information to the public.
Among the long-term solution measures are the development of the Water Sector Adaptation Act to strengthen the governance of climate change adaptation in the water sector and a nature-based solution approach such as the construction of river trails as a platform for community involvement.
Additionally, the government seeks to increase the capacity of flood water reservoirs and strengthen the implementation of the Integrated River Basin Management approach. — DayakDaily
