Putrajaya must give their approval for a natural disaster grant to help the Kelantan and Terengganu governments overcome destructive floods, says PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim.

Anwar ( below ) urged the federal government to hasten the approval of the grant given the worsening conditions due to climate change.

"I urge the federal state government to approve of the natural disaster grant for the states of Kelantan and Terengganu as soon as possible.

"This is to help the governments of both states to overcome the floods, as well as to lighten the load that people there are experiencing,” he said in a statement posted on his Facebook page earlier today.

Meteorological Department National Weather Centre (Met) senior meteorological officer Mohd Hisham Mohd Anip claimed that the flood situation had worsened due to the full moon phenomenon which causes high tides, triggering extraordinary flooding in the east coast this year, Bernama reported.

Occurring when the moon is closest to the earth, Mohd Hisham added that the flood will only become worse with the presence of the northeast monsoon winds blowing consistently across the South China Sea to Malaysia from November to March.

He said the Met predicted heavy rainfall since last week - due to north-east monsoon winds in Kelantan, Terengganu and Pahang - will be continuing until early January.

More than 60,000 people have been evacuated from six states as of this morning, as the second wave of floods ravaged through Kelantan, Terengganu, Pahang, Perak, Sabah and Perlis, the national newswire reported that.

The floods in Kelantan have claimed four lives since Dec 16.

A headcount showed that Kelantan had the most number of evacuees at 26,137, followed by Terengganu (22,326), Pahang (10,825), Perak (1,030), Sabah (336) and Perlis (175).

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