I think most Malaysian today are no longer surprised with news about floods. Since the last decade, our country has suffered many events of flood, the latest serious hit was on the east coast during the end of 2014 and early 2015. With up to 200,000 peoples affected and 21 killed, it was described as the worst flood in decades. It also took more than a year for flood victims in certain states to recover and return to their normal lives.

The geographical location of Malaysia makes it experience two monsoon seasons, the South-West Monsoon and North-East Monsoon. This monsoon season brings more rain resulting in regular floods every year.

Knowing this raises questions. What have the authorities done to prevent the flood? Were the floods unavoidable? Do we have a proper flood mitigation system? Who is to be blame when the floods occur? Have the citizens done enough in flood prevention efforts?

While we stood still pointing fingers at each other, the victims of the flood suffered the social and economic damages.

Aside from the normal or great floods, how about the flash floods? Do we pay any attention to this occurrence? Although flash flood only happened for a short amount of time, the damage done is very significant. At the time this article was written, there had already been three events of flash floods within the month, which happened in Klang, Shah Alam, and Teluk Bahang.

The flash flood in Klang was reported to occur after two hours of heavy rain, leading the Drainage and Irrigation Department (DID) officials to manually open the water gate at Jalan Banting in Pandamaran to reduce the flood water level.

The same thing happened in Shah Alam when a continuous two hours of heavy rain leads to a flash flood in residential area near Seri Muda.

On the other hand in Teluk Bahang, apart from the heavy rain, there may be several factors that led to the flash flood. According to Balik Pulau MP Dr Hilmi Yahaya and the Teluk Bahang Fire and Rescue Department, it was because of the poor drainage system of Sungai Teluk Bahang. While Teluk Bahang assemblyperson Shah Headan Ayoob Hussain Shah said that the flash flood may have been triggered by the hill clearings.

The flash flood that occurred at Teluk Bahang was regarded as the worst flooding in years at Penang. It also affected the Penang International Airport as the water had entered the arrival hall. Several inbound and departing flights were also delayed due to the very bad weather.

Although factors causing the flash flood in these three different places are still being investigated, we can assume that the main factor is because of the poor and outdated drainage system. Our drainage system simply is not prepared to withstand sudden heavy downpours, especially in urban areas.

‘Little or no warning’

Flash floods occur when excessive water fill the land in a short amount of time. Usually, they happen with little or no warning at all. The destruction cause by flash floods combined with its exceptional speed and unpredictability makes it a dangerous flood.

Fortunately, the prevention measures for flood and flash flood is basically the same. Answering some of the questions raised earlier, the government has come out with several flood control measures following the disastrous 1971 great flood. The Natural Disaster Relief Committee was established 1972 with the task of coordinating flood relief operations at national, state and district levels with a view to prevent loss of human lives and to reduce flood damage.

To conclude, prevention of flood should start with individual effort. Citizens should not be too dependent on the government to help prevent the natural disaster. Despite facing floods every year, the mentality of most Malaysian remains unchanged. Environmental awareness remains low and rivers are still polluted by litterbugs.

Although we cannot change the natural causes of the flood, we should do everything that we can to control the man-made causes.

MOHAMMAD HAFIZZ DZULKIFLI is policy and communication executive, Forum Air Malaysia.