Recovering from the flood od 2021/2022
Since January, 2022, we have been working on recovering from the big flood of December, 2021. The flood water rose to 1.5 meters at the farm. Azis, stalwart and brave as ever, spent the night of December 18 on the rooftop of the farmhouse. Through the ensuing days, I wasn’t able to get supplies to him and it took about 5 days before any supplies could reach to him. Our dogs and cats survived but some of our chicken didn’t.
There was extensive damage to the farm including the destruction of our boundary walls, destruction of our fish ponds, ground damage, lost trees as well as damage to the structures. It was a huge cleanup process and it took us a couple of months to complete it. The main focus then apart from cleanup was the rebuilding of the boundary walls. It took us 2 months to rebuild the walls surrounding the farm. This time we reinforced it with steel bars as well as dug deeper to lay the cement and steel base. The focus is on getting it rebuilt. Later in the year, we will probably to the beautifying of the wall but in the meantime, it serves the function of keeping the 4-legged variety from coming it and a deterrent for the 2-legged variety.
We also lost our equipment, tools as well as personal property. The fridge, food dehydrator, tv, stereo, furniture as well as other items all went with the flood waters. It took us almost one month before we could restore clean water to the farm as we needed to lay new polypipe from the source to the farm. As the roads were not open to delivery lorries, this caused the delay. It has been heartbreaking to see all our efforts of the past 14 years washed away but we have faith that we will recover. I feel blessed that our surau, one of the areas of the farmhouse that I loved so much suffered minimal damage and the main work required was to remove the thick mud left behind and cleaning everything up.The various copies of the Al-Quran in the surau was all undamaged.
Just as the cleanup was done, we were hit with another flood in March, 2022. Another round of cleanup was required. Alhamdulillah, this time it wasn’t as bad as the water just rose about 1 feet.
We have been busy rebuilding the necessary and though this time, we have watched many mature trees die. These included cempedak, nangka, soursop, bananas, pomegranate, calamansi and several other types. From the floods we have lost about 40% of our trees. I view this as an opportunity for us to improve our planning and planting of new trees as well as the placement of the trees.
All the products that we had produced is also gone or destroyed. Effectively, we will not be able to sell any produce or products for many months ahead. As our products are farm-based, we would have to replant our source materials and this will take a few months. Only then can we start producing and selling again. This too will require new investment as I will need to replace all the equipment that we use for production of our products. I refuse to ponder over our losses as it will not bring any benefit and can only cause depression.
i don’t know when we will get to the rebuilding of the fish ponds. There was 4 ponds, all interconnected but separated with piping laid for water to flow between the ponds before going out into Sg. Lui. After the flood, the ponds were filled with sand and debris and the fish is basically all gone. I will ponder over the plan first and the amount required to invest in the work. For now, I am not rushing it as I have a feeling that it will be a substantial amount.
Through it all, we remain committed to our ideals and continue to rebuild the farm keeping true to our commitment of producing goods based on naturally or organically grown plants and trees, without the use of any chemicals agents whether from fertilizers, pesticides or herbicides. In shaa Allah, by end of 2022, the farm will be stabilized and we can focus on growing it. So for now, the farm remains closed to visitors whilst we rebuild and restart our operations.