IT was good to read about flood victims picking up the pieces as waters began to recede (“Calm after the storm”, theSun refers).
And it was also heartening to see newspapers and social media reports about Malaysians readily extending help to our hapless flood victims.
But as prevention is better than cure, it is critical that we learn some key lessons from the tumultuous floods.
At the government level, stakeholder’s agencies, including our Meteorological Department, must be proactive.
This includes close constant weather monitoring and liaising with overseas counterparts to timely assess potential regional floods.
Incompetent flood management leads to significant national economic loss, including agricultural and fishery loss, productivity loss from not being able to work or trade and negative knock-on supply chain disruptions.
Most hapless flood victims will certainly mark down our government agencies charged with flood management in terms of their inefficient and/or delayed untimely performance.
It is not more investigations or inquiries that are needed, but strong, proactive and competent leadership from relevant government agencies, including properly coordinating a local and national response.
Accountability for failure of leadership must, arguably, lead to a “heads must roll” outcome.
How often have we seen our drains and rivers clogged due to the negligent disposal of rubbish?
At the individual and business levels, if the tumultuous floods have taught us anything, is that we must strive to be environmentally conscious.
This includes properly disposing household or industrial factory waste.
This would have helped to reduce the severity of record flood levels.
Pray, do not adopt a “business as usual” attitude after the floods recede.
Stakeholders, including government agencies, individuals and businesses, must do their part and be proactive and coordinated, with effective planning and dealing of flood management issues, which are likely to happen more often due to climate change.
Sze Loong Steve Ngeow
Kajang
