Flood disaster linked to climate change

The torrential rains in Malaysia last week, leaving at least six states crippled, is linked to climate change and global warming.

Environmental Management and Research Association of Malaysia (Ensearch) immediate past president Gobinathan Kumaran Nair said the continuous downpour which led to widespread floods nationwide should not be viewed as the usual year-end monsoon flooding.

He said it was time for the government to provide an advanced climate change behaviour and monitoring system.

He added that this was a clear sign of its effects to the country.

When asked to elaborate further, Gobinathan said the unprecedented weather conditions happened because of the wind pattern change in overarching South China Sea.

“The pattern change has come about mainly due to the Far East Countries developing thirst for fossil fuel.

“China, Vietnam and South Korea are contributors of atmospheric changes,” he told Sinar Daily.

Gobinathan, who is also a member of the Environmental Quality Council (2019-2022), said the floods were also related to rapid urbanisation and environmental destruction caused by unmitigated policies for development.

Meanwhile, environmental specialist Dr Zaki Zainuddin said whether these floods are specifically related to climate change or made worse by poor planning, required further study and scrutiny.

“Specialists agree that climate change do result in ‘wetter than the usual wet’ and ‘dryer than usual dry’ seasons and thus have the potential to incur more severe floods.

“Not only that, changes in human behaviour on a mass scale, due to the pandemic lockdowns for example, can also influence the weather.

“For example, emission of particulate matter (aerosols) from pollution, or lack thereof, into the rain-clouds also influence rainfall.

“So, it is a complex interaction of many variables,” he told Sinar Daily.

The Water Quality and Modeling Specialist said Malaysia needed to effectively plan how to face uncertainties in the future.

He said although it was easier said than done, it was also vital for the country to have control activities which exacerbate floods but at the national and local level.

He added that Malaysia should at least implement it at the local level first.

Zaki, who is also an expert panelist for the Malaysian Environment Department, said the intense, continuous rain in Klang Valley and the other parts of the country last week was a rather extraordinary phenomenon.

“Almost 390mm of rain recorded in Kapar, Klang over 24 hours is rather extraordinary. High tide conditions also mean the water doesn’t empty out to the sea as easily,” he said.

Bernama reported that the Environmental and Water Ministry secretary-general Datuk Seri Ir Dr Zaini Ujang said the heavy downpours on Friday and Saturday were a once-in-a-century weather event, bringing rainfall equal to the average for a month.

The phenomenon, he said, occurred due to monsoon flow factors and a low pressure weather system that achieved the level of a tropical depression that formed in the South China Sea on Dec 12.

The system entered Pahang on Dec 16 and moved across the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia, causing a rise in humidity and continuous heavy rain in almost every state in the peninsula.

“It is an exception.

“Normally, during the monsoon season, only states in the East Coast would receive heavy rain but this time, the entire peninsula, especially the central east coast and northern regions are receiving continuous heavy rain,” he had said in a press conference on Sunday.