Do everything possible to prevent man-made causes
IN the past decade, the country has suffered numerous floods, with the latest serious incident occurring in the east coast of the peninsula at the end of 2014 and early last year.
With up to 200,000 people affected and 21 killed, the floods were described as the worst in decades.
It took more than a year for those affected to recover and return to their normal lives.
Malaysia’s location makes it prone to the southwest and northeast monsoons.
What are the authorities doing to prevent floods? Are they unavoidable? Do we have a proper floodmitigation system?
Who is to blame when floods occur? Have we done enough in terms of flood-prevention efforts?
What about flash floods? Do we pay attention to this occurrence, which happens almost daily in some parts of Kuala Lumpur, as well as other parts of the country?
Flash floods may be brief, but the damage they cause is significant.
At the time this letter is written, there have been three incidences of flash floods over the past month. They took place in Klang, Shah Alam and Teluk Bahang, Penang.
The flash floods in Klang reportedly occurred following two hours of heavy rain.
The Drainage and Irrigation Department had to manually open the water gate in Jalan Banting, Pandamaran, to reduce the water level.
The same thing happened in Shah Alam, where a continuous downpour led to flash floods in a residential area near Seri Muda.
There was also heavy rain in Teluk Bahang, but other factors may have contributed to the flash floods that occurred there.
According to Balik Pulau member of parliament Datuk Seri Dr Hilmi Yahaya and the Teluk Bahang Fire and Rescue Department, one of the reasons for the flash floods was the poor drainage system at Sungai Teluk Bahang.
Teluk Bahang assemblyman Datuk Shah Headan Ayoob Hussain Shah, meanwhile, said the flash floods may have been triggered by hill-clearing activities.
The flash floods in Teluk Bahang were regarded as the worst flooding that Penang had seen in years, affecting the Penang International Airport, which saw the arrival hall being inundated with floodwaters and several flights being delayed.
Although the factors that led to the flash floods in the three places are still being investigated, we can assume that the main factor was poor drainage.
The drainage system in these places cannot cope well when there are sudden heavy downpours.
Flash floods occur when excessive water fills land areas in a short time. Usually, they happen with little or no warning.
The destruction caused by flash floods, combined with their speed and unpredictability, makes them dangerous.
Fortunately, preventive measures for the usual flooding and flash floods are similar.
The government came up with flood-control measures following the disastrous great flood of 1971.
The Natural Disaster Relief Committee was established in 1972, with the task of coordinating floodrelief operations at the national, state and district levels, and with a view to prevent the loss of human lives and to reduce the damage caused by floods.
Flood prevention should begin with individuals’ efforts. People should not be too dependent on the government to prevent or deal with natural disasters.
Despite facing floods annually, the mentality of most Malaysians remains unchanged.
Environmental awareness remains low. Rivers are still polluted with litter.
Even though we cannot do anything about the natural causes of flooding, we should do everything we can to prevent man-made causes.