A forum of experts who gathered to discuss Malaysia’s flood crisis on the peninsular east coast and Sabah and Sarawak are predicting more floods coming our way, due to global warming, deforestation, and a lack of law enforcement.
The same experts also cautioned that the annual occurence of monsoon flooding could spread to other parts of the country if these factors are not kept in check.
At the forum, titled “Kelantan Floods: Coincidence or Fate?”, Dr Liew Ju Neng, a meteorology professor at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) said the recent record floods that hit the peninsular east coast was caused by extraordinary rainfall that lasted three to four days, triggered by a phonemenon caled the Madden-Julian oscillation (MJO).
Liew said that although the MJO passes through Malaysia four times a year, extreme flooding only happens when the MJO couples with other climate phenomena, like the annual monsoon season.
“Since the 1970s, MJOs are becoming more active. Due to global warming, MJOs have increased by 40% to 50%. So in the next 30 to 40 years, we will the MJO passing through six times a year,” he said, as quoted by The Malaysian Insider‘s Sheridan Mahavera.
Rantau Panjang MP Siti Zailah Mohd Yusoff said the recent flood crisis caused RM2 billion in damages, with 2,500 homes destroyed in Kelantan alone. Twelve people died during the flood crisis.
Sharmila Ariffin of the environmental group Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM) said the floods were also exacerbated by rampant deforestation, carried out by clear-cutting entire forests to make way for new plantations.
She said Kelantan was losing its forests at the highest rate in the peninsula.
The Federal Government was also taken to task in the forum for instituting a policy fo encouraging new plantations to open in the country.
“This is a policy throughout the country. Not just in Kelantan. There is a RM1 billion fund using the public’s money to encourage cutting down of forests to build plantations,” Sharmila said.
