KUALA LUMPUR, April 3 — Klang residents are exploring the possibility of taking action against the government for its failure to respond in a timely fashion to the devastating floods that hit them in December last year, Klang MP Charles Santiago said today.
“Klang residents want to explore the possibility of a lawsuit against the Malaysian government for dereliction of duty during the December floods. This is one of the calls at a seminar titled “The Impact of Climate Change on Coastal Areas Like Klang”, held yesterday.
“The state has a responsibility to protect and promote the rights and interests of its citizens. However, during the floods, there was hardly an early warning system or efficient flood relief efforts to help vulnerable individuals and communities.
“In fact, government officials were missing in the first three to four days, and people took it upon themselves to organise food distributions and rescue missions,” he said in a statement.
He said residents have also suggested that the government formulate a new drainage and irrigation system for Klang by widening and deepening the rivers to allow better water flow as well as abolishing the National Disaster Management Agency (Nadma).
“This suggestion takes into consideration that Klang has become a densely-populated area requiring a different approach to managing floods and the fact that the current drainage system is unable to accommodate high rainfall and sea level rise.
“Nadma, the government-mandated national relief agency, should be shut down and replaced by a Disaster Relief Force, with a national legislative framework in flood management. This would entail a comprehensive piece of legislation to unify the various laws and regulations, including policies and programmes to reduce flood-related risks,” Charles said.
“Currently, the country’s flood relief and recovery efforts are organised under National Security Council Directive No: 20, where about eight laws and regulations are invoked when responding to a disaster.
“This approach needs to be changed.”
Malaysia’s risk of frequent floods has increased due to climate change and states such as Selangor lack the necessary infrastructure to mitigate a flood on the scale that hit the Klang Valley over the weekend of December 18, which has been estimated to have incurred losses of at least RM20 billion.
Experts have said for Klang Valley, the country’s industrial heart, mitigation strategies must include either storage or diversion for flood waters. Storage may be in the form of retention ponds, off-river storage (ORS) systems or in-river storage.
Charles said many citizens affected by the floods were angry that there was hardly an early warning system or efficient flood relief efforts to help vulnerable individuals and communities.
Charles said the disaster relief force will not take much to set up as it will constitute members of the police, army and air force that can be deployed when confronted with a disaster.
“Drastic situations require drastic measures. Malaysia is experiencing a frequency of extreme weather conditions with places that have never experienced floods facing high rain falls and flooding.
“Some areas in Klang have experienced floods about five times over the last six months. And there are more landslides in different parts of the country as well. Instead of seriously looking at mitigation factors, the government is playing down the urgency on the ground,” Charles said.
Climate experts believe the mid-December floods were likely a direct consequence of a tropical depression which made landfall on the east coast of peninsular Malaysia as early as December 16, bringing torrential rain over a span of three days.
While the floods may be an annual occurrence, the ones that hit the Klang Valley were seen as a freak incident, which the authorities have cited to defend themselves against deep public resentment.
Over the three-day period during the flood, most of Selangor and the capital city saw unprecedented rainfall amounting to 380mm, more than five times the national average.
