Are we ready for extreme weather?

Emeritus Professor Tan Sri Dato' Dzulkifli Abdul Razak
My View - The Sun Daily
January 2, 2019

THIS time last year a headline in theSun read “Washed out”. It reported a total of 2,834 students from 21 schools were unable to attend the first day of the new school session due to the “worsening flood situation”.

The schools were in Kelantan, Terengganu, Pahang, Johor and Sarawak. There are no surprises in the listing. They are the usual ones expected to suffer the same fate year in and year out. Only that it is “worsening” each time. Again this is to be expected given the climatic condition and the overdue infrastructural neglect.

The usual response to this is that the authority was working with the relevant body “to assess the flood situation”. One wishes that such assessments are done very much earlier so that some real mitigation work can be undertaken to spare the students from missing lessons. This calls for forward planning.

If we can think of a lucrative East Coast Rail Link project to that part of the country to the tune of billions, and plan ahead despite the phenomenal cost and complexity in engaging foreign investors, how can we miss a more linear problem-solving project at the same location.

Maybe it is not as prestigious but it is just as deserving (if not more so) for the locals who have been facing such inconveniences for many years. The floods have become an annual irritant to say the least.

It becomes worse when schools are used as relief centres; this makes restarting classes more complicated. It somewhat compounds the already strained situation causing more lost schooling days. Not at all a good start especially when the majority if not all of the affected students are from the lower social strata.

The Malaysian Meteorological Department director-general said the Northeast monsoon was expected to last until March and has already brought heavy rainfall to Kelantan and Terengganu.

Rain will make its way to Pahang and Johor before shifting to Sabah and Sarawak later in the season. “These states are expected to experience four to six heavy rainfalls as in previous years,” he said. The situation could be worsened by spring tides that take place during new and full moons. While the east coast is typically the worst hit by floods during the rainy season, west coast residents should also be on the alert.

Although this is considered “minor” in comparison to what happened in the Sunda Straits last week, it cannot be left unattended. We must count our blessings and do better because while we were sheltered from the Sunda tsunami that claimed more than 400 lives and left more than 1,000 injured, this may not be the last of natural disasters.

A UN panel issued a warning that the consequences of climate change might be another factor to worry about if the temperatures rise by 1.5°C come 2030. The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) sounded the warning in a report seen as the main scientific guide for policymakers on how to implement the 2015 Paris Agreement.

A rise of 1.5°C would carry climate-related risks for nature and humankind, although said to be slightly lower than the 2°C ceiling above the pre-industrial levels.

The IPCC called for “rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented” change in land and energy use, industry, buildings, transport and cities which leads us to wonder if these have been taken into account in the first place as agreed in Paris. Even then it is said to be insufficient no matter how large or ambitious the cuts are.

These are the issues that should concern policymakers now if future generations are to be protected beyond the “normal” flooding that we seem helpless to manage. As we step into the new year this must be our main preoccupation going forward when the “slimmest of opportunities” are indeed the real challenge ahead in our attempt to make a difference at all levels not limited to just (un)natural calamities. This therefore must be our collective resolution for the new year. Happy 2019.