ALOR SETAR – Troubled by uncanny similarities between the floods that have now hit Baling and the waterhead disaster around Gunung Jerai last year, a Kedah DAP state rep has called for dams built on the hilly terrains to be investigated.
State party chairman Tan Kok Yew, who is the assemblyman for Derga, also suggested that the Kedah assembly sitting on July 18 be extended to allow all 36 backbenchers and members of the state government to debate and moot solutions to curb such disasters.
“We were also informed that water from mini dams at Gunung Inas had also overflowed. We need to investigate this,” he said in a statement here.
“Kedah needs to audit the small dams located in elevated areas such as hills and mountains,” he added.
He stressed that the waterhead incident at Gunung Inas in Baling last night, which was eerily like the one at Gunung Jerai in August last year, is a firm reminder that Kedah needs to do more to fight climate change.
Meanwhile, images and videos have emerged on social media, suggesting that there have been extensive land clearings around Gunung Inas prior to the floods.
The images include the appearance of excavations like mini dams on the slopes.
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The Gunung Jerai floods were also blamed on a similar land clearing of the hill for logging, quarrying and mining.
Tan said that he was informed as of now that 1,426 victims were relocated, while three persons were believed to have drowned after having been swept away by the currents in Baling.
He added that the current legislative sitting needs to be extended to also debate about unlocking Kedah’s financial reserves to be utilised for families who have suffered natural calamities at Inas and Jerai.
“We cannot just wait for federal aid. We need to do it ourselves,” said Tan.
A state assembly session in Kedah is usually held just for one day.
Tan also said that DAP’s Baling division, headed by Lim Yoke Pheng, has begun deploying volunteers to the area to help those affected by the floods in view of Kedah’s plans to declare the area as a natural disaster locality.
Meanwhile, some quarters are also questioning whether durian farming could have triggered the waterhead incident.
Sahabat Alam Malaysia president Meenaskhi Raman told The Vibes that there is a need for all stakeholders to sit down with the private sector and civil societies to formulate new ways for development and in land clearing.
The frequency in major floodings which are accompanied by mudflows, landslides and rising waters cannot only be seen as merely an unusual level of rainfall.
“The fact that it is an unusual downpour shows that climate change is now taking effect.”
The faster there is a reaction towards building resilience against climate change, the better prepared the country can be in mitigating it, she said.
In August last year, Meenakshi had similarly stressed on the need to investigate mining or quarrying operations that led to parts of the forest on Gunung Jerai being cleared prior to the huge floods there.
In that incident, massive gushes of water and sliding earth from the mountain were accompanied by flooding in areas near the foothills in Yan, affecting some 2,000 villagers. – The Vibes, July 5, 2022
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