Muda suggests military-style exercises for year-end flood preparation

 

Muda has told the government to be proactive in anticipation of extreme weather that is expected to hit the country by end-2022 and avoid its past mistake by conducting military-style training exercises.

In a statement today, Muda vice-president Zaidel Baharuddin suggested that government agencies adopt simulation exercises to improve disaster management.

“The armed forces always conduct war and operation simulation exercises, this concept should be adopted by disaster management agencies,” he said.

This is among the early mitigation and prevention measures that can be implemented and announced by the government, especially the secretariat of the Prime Minister’s Department,  said Zaidel.

Meanwhile, he said, drainage management, expansion, and coordination training among the relevant authorities should be done before the return of the northeast monsoon season by year-end.

“Take early measures, make periodic announcements and alerts, publish important disaster-related information earlier and have a clear and organised communication plan.

“This time, please involve the state government, including the states led by the opposition,” he said.

Zaidel said this should be done because local authorities and state government agencies are more knowledgeable about issues relating to infrastructure and local topology.

‘Climate change a reality’

“As the saying goes, prepare an umbrella before it rains. Let’s not repeat the past mistakes where poor coordination between government agencies resulted in economic losses and fatalities,” he said.

“Indeed, climate change is a reality, we can see that the weather that hit the country is becoming more extreme, in terms of the frequency of heavy rains.

“As we saw last year, places that had never been hit by floods before were also affected,” he said.

It was reported that the Meteorological Department warned of the possibility of huge floods in November and December with the return of the torrential monsoon, coupled with the ongoing La Nina phenomenon.

The massive heavy rain and flash floods that took place between November 2021 and January 2022 displaced more than 136,000 people from their homes and killed 55.

The floods affected most of the states in Peninsular Malaysia, including Kelantan, Negeri Sembilan, Selangor and Kuala Lumpur, Kedah, Perlis, Johor, Malacca, and Terengganu. Sabah in East Malaysia was also affected.

The government admitted that it was slow in responding to the disaster. - Mkini