FLOOD RISK IN MALAYSIA

In Malaysia, at least 3.5 million people live on flood plains. Furthermore,

this figure is still increasing as rural-urban migration, land pressures,
poverty and other structural forces are anticipated to exacerbate flood plain
encroachment. This has resulted in an increasing flood risk.
During major floods people’s coping mechanisms are completely
ineffective and must rely on government relief.
Flood losses in terms of loss of life and damage to property are
substantial, and cost the bulk of the budget for disaster management.
Potential flood damage in large cities such as Kuala Lampur can be high.
Flood losses comprise direct and indirect, as well as tangible and intangible
losses. Risk is increasing due to changing flood characteristics by
urbanization. In Malaysia, flood hazards and disasters continue to escalate
in magnitude and frequency because humans choose to occupy flood
plains, mismanage flood hazards, overdevelop land and deplete natural
resources.
Kuala Lampur is so frequently inundated because of over-
development of river valleys. Rapid flows of water accumulate due to the
replacement of absorbable soils by artificial surfaces, and flow into
constricted rivers (which have become shallow due to siltation from
exposed land development) in too short a time, causing “flash floods”.
Flood hazards are also increasing due to poor management.
Flood control solutions ban be classified onto two: structural and
non-structural. The former are engineering based (dams, reservoirs,
diversion channels) and the latter are related to social sciences (flood
forecasting, warning systems, disaster management).
One of the main reasons why flash floods still occur in many urban
centers is due to the long delays in completing flood mitigation works.
Existing flood warning systems are completely inadequate.
Floods are bi-products of the interaction between a natural events
system and a human society. In Malaysia, the problem is exacerbated when
the people continue to develop already densely populated flood plains.
Many fail to see floods as the consequence of rapid development
and rapid development and environmental degradation. Flooding continues
to haunt those who live on flood plains.
It is vital that a prudent combination of both structural and non-
structural control situations be adopted, and for the government to put
these control situations before financial and economic growth.