KUALA LUMPUR: Disaster risk reduction should be a priority in the national development agenda even if it involves high costs at the initial stage, said an official of the Economic Planning Unit (EPU) in the Prime Minister’s Department.
Mohammad Razif Abd Mubin, EPU deputy director of environment and natural resources economic section, said this would be beneficial in the long term because the risk of disasters, such as floods that caused heavy loss of property, could be minimised.
“The relevant institutions should undertake thorough planning in carrying out development projects that can reduce the impact of floods,” he said in a keynote address on ‘Impact of Floods on Development’ at the National Conference on Flood Disaster: Reality and Action, here.
Mohammad Razif said flood disaster would be more severe when certain quarters implemented development activities without taking into consideration their effect on the environment, particularly activities such as uncontrolled land exploration and clearing in the catchment zones of forest areas in the upstream river basins.
“Worse still are economic activities such as uncontrolled agricultural activities carried out in highlands. There are also cases of settlements erected on flood plains that breach the buffer zones such as river reserves to the extent of inviting disaster.
“An example is what happened in Cameron Highlands, Pahang on Nov 5. It is evident that uncontrolled economic activities were the cause of floods that led to loss of lives and damage to property which could not be gauged in monetary terms,” he said.
He said efforts would continue to be intensified to implement balanced development through conservation of nature and its resources to ensure a balance between development and sensitive areas such as catchments and flood plains.
Mohammad Razif said flood damage was estimated at RM100 million annually in the 1980s and that this had risen to RM915 million annually in the first decade of the 2000s.
“Currently, floods in Malaysia affect a total of 26,700 sq km and involve about 5.7 million people.
“This can be translated into an annual loss of close to RM1.06 billion by way of damage to infrastructure, property and agricultural areas,” he said. — Bernama