KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 15 — The number of flood incidents decreased to 983 in 2022 compared to 1,057 in the preceding year, according to the 2023 Environment Statistics released by the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) today.

Chief Statistician Datuk Seri Mohd Uzir Mahidin, in a statement, said Sarawak recorded the highest number of flood incidents with 242, followed by Kedah (108) while Terengganu and Selangor each had 107 incidents.

"The number of victims affected by disasters, namely floods, storms, landslides, and fires (in 2022) decreased to 192,707 people compared to 208,643 individuals in 2021. The number of temporary evacuation centres also decreased to 1,498 compared to 1,778 in the previous year,” he said.

He said Malaysia experienced the effects of La Nina in 2022, among which was humid weather that directly impacted the environment, with annual rainfall at 22 stations showing an increase of between 26 millimetres (mm) and 1,749.4 mm.

The effects of La Nina also resulted in an increase in lightning days. The highest was recorded by the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) station in Sepang with 340 days, followed by the Subang station (307 days) and Melaka station (273 days).

Mohd Uzir said the rainy weather also caused the breeding of Aedes mosquitoes to increase, resulting in a significant rise in dengue fever cases by 150.9 per cent to 65,987 cases in 2022 compared to 26,301 cases in 2021.

Selangor recorded the highest number of cases with 37,502 in 2022, compared to 15,712 cases in the previous year, followed by Sabah (7,092 cases) and Kuala Lumpur including Putrajaya (6,714 cases). — Bernama