While welcoming the government's RM730 million allocation in Budget 2016 for flood mitigation projects nationwide, an environmentalist said he believes the government still has to pay attention to the contributing factors.

Malaysian Centre for Environment, Technology and Development (CETDEM) executive director Anthony Tan pointed out that uncontrolled logging and loss of mangrove areas had contributed to natural disasters.

Thus the government had to seriously look into implementing sustainable logging to curb deforestation, as well as maintaining the country's mangrove forest, he said.

Citing the flood in Kelantan early this year as an example, he said Sungai Kelantan already had an early warning system, but it broke down due to the tremendous amount of mud that flowed through the river.

"So if we look back at the source of the problem, if it was purely due to the heavy rainfall, then something could have been done to control the situation better," he said.

However, in this situation there were no trees to stop the mud flow due to deforestation, he told Bernama .

When tabling the budget in the Dewan Rakyat today, Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak announced the allocation of RM730 million for flood mitigation projects nationwide and RM60 million to implement the National Flood Forecasting and Warning Programme, as well as to develop a national earthquake and tsunami sub-centre in Sabah.

Tan said the country had to learn from the 2004 tsunami how mangrove forests had saved the Perlis and Kedah coastal areas from critical damage.

"So, are we maintaining our mangrove forests now? The mangrove forest helps as a tide-breaker when the strong waves come. It also helps replenish the fish stock," he said, adding that the government should also put more emphasis on environmental education for the general public.

- Bernama