'Where's the urgency?' - Muda blasts slow response to floods

 

The Malaysian United Democratic Alliance (Muda) has blasted authorities for a lack of urgency in their response to the floods that have taken hold of many states. 

Muda's Climate Change and Sustainability bureau head Afiqah Zulkifli said that even though floods were a regular occurrence, there appeared to be slow responses and absolutely no attempts to mitigate in between each flood.

"It is common knowledge that floods are the worst annual disaster to hit Malaysians. 

"This not only involves financial loss but also loss of life. Whether it is caused by high rainfall distribution, flash floods, floods due to monsoons or tidal floods, all of these have a detrimental effect on public wellbeing.

"With the increasing frequency and scale of floods, what urgent and proactive measures have been taken at each level of local government, state government and central government?" she asked in a statement.

As of 11pm yesterday, 188 relief centres were opened to house 11,384 evacuees from 4,500 families in six states hit by floods following downpours, with Pahang and Selangor the two worst-affected states.

Afiqah said that loss after loss has to be borne by the people.

"Property damage, loss in business and in agriculture — all of this has to be borne individually on deck because there is no guarantee and full loss assistance to disaster victims.

"Muda calls for mitigation and adaptation initiatives to flood disasters at all levels of the government.

"Disaster management at the before, during and after stages of the flooding must involve more stakeholders, groups and community leaders so that the synergy between local knowledge and trained parties can be utilised," she added.

Centralise risk management, emergency data 

Afiqah urged for the management of risk and emergency data from various parties to be formally centralised for more detailed analysis and strategic plans.

"Muda calls for information on disaster anticipation, early warning systems, risk and emergency communication to be enhanced so that the public is always informed of the latest situation of victims and disaster areas.

"We are under threat from not just a pandemic, but also a climate crisis. Sustainable development cannot be achieved unless disaster risk is reduced," she added. - Mkini