In God’s truth, what caused Baling’s deadly floods?

 

What’s happened to our senior PAS politicians? Have they suddenly seen the light or gone through some form of religious conversion?

In the past, when heavy rain caused flash floods and triggered land- and mudslides, Malaysians would react angrily against the government, both state and at national level.

Their demand for answers would be met with the usual response, “It’s an act of God, it has nothing to do with logging of the hill slopes.”

Few would dare to argue. The mention of God is a good tactic used by Malay politicians to silence their critics because no one likes to be reprimanded for “questioning” God, even if death and loss of property has taken place.

Following the deadly floods in Baling, Kedah, this week, Malaysians are again demanding answers about why they are occurring – and recurring – and about the lack of preparedness, the failure to warn the people, and the long wait before aid was mobilised.

Many villagers in the affected areas would have sounded alerts about various activities upstream, about how they feared these would cause flooding problems if not acted on by the authorities. Their fears, they would tell you, had fallen on deaf ears.

It was not the first time that they had experienced such disasters before. The trail of destruction left by the raging floodwaters in Gunung Jerai nearby last year must have been fresh on their minds.

In September last year, energy and natural resources minister Takiyuddin Hassan had denied allegations of illegal logging and told Parliament the disaster was an act of God.

In the wake of the Baling floods, he again dismissed claims that logging and the clearing of land to open up a vast durian plantation were the real causes of the incident. He rejected a call to set up a royal commission of inquiry, and denied claims that the relevant departments had dragged their feet when identifying the areas at risk.

So how does one explain to a non-scientist like Takiyuddin that man’s activities helped to accelerate the damage inflicted on the villages? In the pursuit of profit, our authorities think nothing about destroying the environment. We log our jungles without worrying about the consequences.

Is Takiyuddin aware that the canopy of huge trees in the jungle is a necessary natural deterrent against flooding? Trees act like a giant umbrella during heavy rain and their roots absorb much of the moisture. The rotting vegetation on the jungle floor also takes in some of the water run-off.

Replacing trees in the jungle with a crop like oil palm is insufficient to prevent flooding. The oil palm does not act like a sponge, as large trees would. They do not form a canopy and the space between each palm tree is large, causing rain to fall directly onto the soil. The rivers cannot cope with the excessive amount of water from the surface run-off.

Do irresponsible people who denude the forests and plant oil palm, or rows of Musang King durian trees, realise that there is bound to be future trouble? As there are few roots to hold the soil together, the hill slope becomes increasingly vulnerable when there is rain. Trees will be uprooted.

Will Takiyuddin listen? He claimed that the government and relevant departments gave priority and took action in areas identified as high risk for disasters, and that Gunung Inas – from where a gush of water had come – was not listed as a high-risk area before Monday’s tragedy.

Which areas were deemed high risk? Would environmental NGOs agree with the state’s assessment? Try telling the affected villagers that priority decisions had been made and action taken to prevent flooding. No one would believe Takiyuddin. - FMT

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.