GEORGE TOWN – Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow urged climate change experts to work with the state to mitigate future risks involving low-lying areas being inundated by water due to global warming.
With sea levels rising exponentially due to the melting of polar ice caps, Chow said the Penang government wants to work with the relevant agencies and climate specialists to prepare future generations for the scenario.
He spoke about incorporating modern mitigating measures, such as beefing up embankments and strengthening the shorelines against the rising tides.
“We need to double our effectiveness to reduce global warming. Pollution needs to be stopped,” Chow told journalists here this evening.
Chow said that there is a need to use modern technology to raise the height of the shoreline for future projects.
He said this includes the proposed Penang South Islands (PSI) reclamation project, which just received approval to proceed from the Environment Department (DoE).
“From the PSI perspective, its planners went into the project knowing about climate change and I am sure they will undertake the right measures. But generally, we want all projects to be constructed by bearing in mind the rising sea levels.”
Chow said this after he was informed that the state’s own agency – the Penang Green Council – has agreed that low-lying areas in Seberang Prai and some parts of the island could become part of the Indian Ocean in the coming decades due to climate change.
The council estimates that it could happen by 2100, which is about 76 years from now.
Chow said that the state cannot be sitting on its laurels, and that the experts must come forward to cooperate with Penang on mitigating climate change.
The council’s general manager, Josephine Tan Mei Ling, said the rising sea levels remained a cause for concern, adding that a report was submitted to the state government.
“The report indicated that a large part of the mainland along the coast, which are currently paddy planting areas, would be underwater by 2100,” she said.
“We also saw evidence of temperature rise and the increase of rainwater intensity in Penang, which will lead to more severe drought and flood incidents. All these will have an impact on Penang’s food and water security.”
In the report, Universiti Sains Malaysia’s Centre for Marine and Coastal Studies professor Datuk Zulfigar Yasin said Kepala Batas and Juru in Penang could become part of the sea within a decade.
He had said that it could be worse for neighbouring Kedah, as many of these critical areas are on low-lying grounds, which serve as fertile soil for paddy fields.
The World Bank, in a study, had put the historical sea level rise over the period from 1993 to 2015 at around 3.3mm per year for east of Malaysia and around 5mm per year west of Malaysia. – The Vibes, April 26, 2023
