UNGS 1201 : Week 12 : Malaysia Flood 2021 A case of Unsustainable Development

                Hello and good morning everyone ! Thank you for still be there to read my blog ! So for this week I will share the latest case that Malaysia faced on the end of last year 2021 which is flood. So, basically Malaysia will face flood at least once a year because of the monsoon changes. But, at the end of 2021, there are not like usual flood but it be more worse than expected. The water level increasing very fast in one state and area make it reach to the top of house's roof. Moreover, the state that involved with this flood not like usual state such Kelantan, Terengganu but it also involved Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Negeri Sembilan, Pahang and many more states. This issue is a very serious issue that we as Malaysia have to care more about flood. So here I will share why does it happen ?, How does it happen ? and What is the possible solution ? 

                Why does flood happen actually ? There are actually many reasons which lead to flood but the main reasons is climate change. Climate change does increase the probability of certain weather types. Climate scientists have observed over the years that as average temperatures have gone up, more rains have fallen leading to heavy downpours, hence flooding. Based on Dr. Siew, who is the climate change advisor to the Centre for Governance and Political Studies (Cent-GPS), a Malaysia-based behavioral and social science research firm, explained: “When we pump out carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, what tends to happens is that this creates a global seeping effect where greenhouse gases trap heat and under warmer conditions, our atmosphere is able to hold more vapors and moisture.” He also added about the flood that happen in the end of 2021 “When you have an accumulation effect, the longer-term impact of this is that you have sudden downpour of rain in certain localized areas, and that is what you have seen in the floods over Malaysia in the last few days”. (channelnewsasia.com)

         Besides, there were for sure had unsustainable development that causes this climate change which was deforestation. In fact, on social media, even netizens conclude that the floods, especially in Pahang, is the result of humans themselves destroying nature for the sake of development and profit. This is because of the uncontrolled forest clearing and logging activities, especially in Pahang and Kelantan. For a senior lecturer at the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University Putra Malaysia (UPM), Associate Prof Dr. Haliza Abdul Rahman, logging activities and changes in forest land use could increase the occurrence of natural disasters. She said the forest play a very effective role in controlling flood problems by covering the soil surface from erosion due to rain and  holding back and delaying the passage of rainwater to streams and rivers. There are many netizens update about their house full of woods ang logs after flood happen. 

There are many solutions that we can do as Malaysian and also the authorities of Malaysian should take an effective action to overcome this flood disasters from happen again like last year. First and foremost, the authorities should redesign and long term reconstruction of current drainage systems. The current drainage systems is one of the cause that water cant move smoothly to the exact place. Moreover, as societies, we should take care the cleanliness of our drainage such as do not throw away all the rubbish into the drainage because it can cause clogged drains. Next, the authorities need to enforce the legislation especially on deforestation and others that related to the cause of flood. Besides, all people should increase their awareness regarding the flood case and the importance of environment. There are a few solutions that we can do step by step to overcome this issue. 

So, I hope we can take care ourselves and also our environment to have a betterment life in the future. That's all for now, Thank you !! See you again 💣💥