PORTAL RASMI
JABATAN PERDANA MENTERI
AGENSI PENGURUSAN BENCANA NEGARA
JABATAN PERDANA MENTERI
AGENSI PENGURUSAN BENCANA NEGARA
APRIL 21 — I refer to the statement by Selangor’s State Infrastructure and Agriculture Exco, Datuk Izham Hashim, on 21 April 2026.
Datuk Izham has attempted to justify a four-year timeline for flood mitigation by pointing to countries such as the Netherlands, Germany and China. That comparison is not just misplaced – it is misleading.
Malaysia receives between 2,000 to 3,500 mm of rainfall annually, with some regions exceeding 4,000 mm. By contrast, the Netherlands and Germany receive roughly 700 to 1,000 mm annually, under far less intense rainfall conditions. Even in China, only certain southern regions experience rainfall levels comparable to Malaysia.
To cite these countries while ignoring these fundamental differences is to avoid the real issue.
The Selangor government’s assertion that resolving the state’s flood crisis will take four years – and require massive public expenditure – is therefore not a statement of necessity. It is an admission of misplaced priorities.
The state continues to rely on expensive, infrastructure-heavy solutions – river widening, deepening, and other engineering works – while refusing to confront the principal upstream driver of flooding: logging and deforestation.
Forests are not incidental to flood management. They are the first line of defence. They absorb rainfall, regulate runoff, stabilise soil, and protect entire river systems. Remove them, and water flows faster, accumulates quicker, and overwhelms downstream infrastructure. Flooding, in such circumstances, is entirely predictable.
It is indefensible that logging activities continue, including within water catchment and environmentally sensitive areas. The state cannot continue to degrade its natural flood defences and then ask the public to pay billions to compensate for that destruction.
This is not a complex problem. It is a failure of basic logic.
If Selangor is serious about addressing floods, the priorities must be immediate and unequivocal:
i) Give full effect to the 25-year moratorium on logging announced in 2009;
ii) Implement a state-wide reforestation and ecological restoration programme targeting degraded forest reserves and catchment areas; and
iii) Strictly enforce environmental laws, with full accountability for unlawful or excessive land clearing.
These are not policy options. They are minimum requirements.
Flood mitigation in Malaysia does not begin with concrete. It begins with stopping the destruction of our forests.
Until the state addresses this fundamental contradiction, any four-year plan is nothing more than an expensive exercise in managing the consequences of its own decisions.
* Rajesh Nagarajan is president of PEKA.
** This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.
KUALA LUMPUR: Penduduk dan peniaga di sekitar Seksyen 13, Shah Alam berdepan kerugian serta gangguan rutin harian apabila kawasan itu kerap dilanda banjir kilat setiap kali hujan lebat.
Bagi Mukhriz Mat Husin, 31, hujan lebat sekitar satu hingga dua jam sudah memadai untuk menyebabkan air naik dengan cepat, malah keadaan semakin membimbangkan sejak kebelakangan ini.
Meskipun hujan berhenti, katanya banjir tidak terus surut sebaliknya mengambil masa yang lama untuk reda.
Menurutnya walaupun kediamannya di pangsapuri tidak terjejas, kenderaan miliknya pernah rosak teruk dalam kejadian banjir besar sekitar 2021 sehingga kerugian lebih RM10,000.
"Ketika itu saya bekerja dan tidak sempat selamatkan kereta. Air naik sangat cepat dan ada kawasan dinaiki banjir sehingga paras leher, dengan tingkat bawah bangunan juga tenggelam," katanya.
Tambah Mukhriz, masalah banjir di kawasan itu bukan baharu, sebaliknya berlaku hampir setiap tahun dengan sistem perparitan tidak efisyen antara punca, selain pembangunan pesat di sekitar kawasan berkenaan.
"Perparitan tidak mampu tampung air, tetapi pembangunan masih diteruskan. Ini menyebabkan keadaan semakin teruk," katanya kepada BH.
Semalam, Sultan Selangor, Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah menzahirkan dukacita apabila nasihat baginda mengenai isu banjir kepada kerajaan negeri seperti mencurahkan air ke daun keladi.
Sultan Sharafuddin bertitah, sudah berpuluh kali baginda menasihatkan pihak kerajaan negeri agar menyelesaikan isu banjir dengan kadar segera.
Bagi peniaga di kawasan Stadium Shah Alam, Mohd Ali Jainneh, 36, rasa bimbang sentiasa ada setiap kali hujan lebat melanda terutama dengan risiko banjir yang mungkin berlaku.
Menurutnya, banjir lazimnya menjejaskan laluan utama ke kawasan perniagaan dan tapak gerai berhampiran stadium, dengan paras air boleh mencecah betis hingga lutut, manakala di laluan tertentu lebih tinggi sehingga menyukarkan kenderaan melalui kawasan tersebut.
Namun begitu, perniagaan masih diteruskan walaupun banjir, tetapi mereka kekurangan pelanggan kerana kawasan untuk akses ke gerai dinaiki air.
Peniaga terima kesan
"Kalau hujan lebat sahaja, kami akan risau. Kadang-kadang tidak sempat kemas barang, air sudah naik," katanya.
Menurutnya situasi itu menelan kerugian besar kerana makanan siap dimasak dari dapur pusat tidak dapat dijual dan terpaksa dibuang.
"Jualan semalam sebagai contoh merosot teruk apabila hanya kurang daripada 20 bungkus berjaya dijual berbanding kebiasaan iaitu 300 hingga 500 hidangan," katanya kepada BH.
Ali berkata dia percaya masalah banjir berpunca sistem perparitan yang tidak diselenggara dengan baik serta kemungkinan saliran tersumbat, selain faktor pembangunan di kawasan sekitar yang menjejaskan aliran air.
"Saya harap pihak berkuasa dapat menambah baik sistem perparitan dan menyediakan lokasi perniagaan yang lebih sesuai pada masa hadapan, khususnya selepas projek pembangunan stadium siap, bagi memastikan kelangsungan peniaga kecil terus terjamin," katanya.
PETALING JAYA: An environmental group has called on the Selangor government to enforce a 25-year logging moratorium, announced in 2010, if it is serious about tackling floods.
Pertubuhan Pelindung Khazanah Alam (Peka) said the state is still relying on costly river widening and deepening initiatives, while refusing to address the root cause of the floods – logging and deforestation.
“Flood mitigation in Malaysia does not begin with concrete. It begins with stopping the destruction of our forests,” Peka president Rajesh Nagarajan said.
In a statement, Rajesh said forests are not a side issue in flood control but the first line of defence because they absorb rain, control runoff, stabilise soil, and protect river systems.
Removing forests causes water to flow faster, build up more quickly, and overwhelm downstream infrastructure, making floods predictable.
He was responding to remarks by Selangor infrastructure and agriculture committee chairman Izham Hashim that the state’s flood problems could take four years to resolve.
Rajesh said the state government’s claim that resolving floods would take four years and require massive public spending is “not a statement of necessity”, but “an admission of misplaced priorities”.
He noted that the forestry department had, in 2010, said the state government had imposed a 25-year logging moratorium to preserve forest resources.
He said Selangor could not continue allowing logging, including in water catchment and environmentally sensitive areas, and then expect the public to bear the cost of dealing with the damage.
Apart from imposing a logging moratorium, Rajesh said, the state government should carry out a state-wide reforestation and ecological restoration programme in degraded forest reserves and catchment areas.
It should also enforce environmental laws against unlawful or excessive land clearing. “These are not policy options. They are minimum requirements,” Rajesh said.
Until the state government deals with this contradiction, he said, any four-year flood plan would be “nothing more than an expensive exercise in managing the consequences of its own decisions”.
CAMERON HIGHLANDS: Persatuan Kesedaran Alam Sekitar Cameron Highlands (Reach) mendakwa pembangunan di kawasan cerun menjadi punca banjir lumpur yang berlaku di Habu Heights di sini kelmarin susulan hujan lebat.
Presiden Reach, A. Dilip Martin berkata, kejadian itu sekali lagi menimbulkan persoalan mengenai kelulusan pembangunan, khususnya pembukaan tanah pertanian di kawasan cerun yang sangat curam di sini.
Menurutnya, pihak berkuasa tidak sewajarnya meluluskan aktiviti pembukaan tanah di kawasan berisiko tinggi, termasuk cerun yang melebihi had selamat yang boleh menyebabkan kejadian banjir lumpur.
“Reach berpendapat bahawa pihak berkuasa perlu lebih tegas dan bertanggungjawab dalam proses kelulusan.
“Apabila insiden seperti ini berlaku, tiada pihak yang tampil bertanggungjawab, keadaan ini tidak boleh dibiarkan berterusan,” katanya kepada Utusan Malaysia.
Beliau berkata, Cameron Highlands merupakan kawasan sensitif alam sekitar, dengan kebanyakan cerun diklasifikasikan sebagai Kelas 3 dan Kelas 4 yang tidak boleh lakukan apa-apa aktiviti pertanian atau pembangunan.
Katanya, justeru Reach menegaskan bahawa setiap permohonan pembangunan harus dinilai secara teliti melalui lawatan tapak oleh agensi teknikal.
“Reach menyeru agar semua pihak berkaitan mengambil langkah segera untuk memperketatkan prosedur kelulusan serta memastikan pematuhan yang lebih ketat demi melindungi alam sekitar dan keselamatan komuniti setempat,” katanya.
Beberapa kawasan sekitar Ringlet dan Habu di sini, dilanda banjir lumpur susulan hujan lebat yang melanda kawasan berkenaan kelmarin.
Kejadian menyebabkan air bercampur lumpur melimpah ke atas jalan raya sehingga menjejaskan pergerakan kenderaan di beberapa laluan utama.
Rakaman video kejadian yang tular di media sosial menunjukkan aliran air berlumpur deras memasuki permukaan jalan serta kawasan sekitar, sekali gus menimbulkan kebimbangan dalam kalangan penduduk dan pengguna jalan raya. – UTUSAN
KOTA KINABALU, April 22 — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim is scheduled to visit Sabah today to assess the situation following a major fire in Kampung Bahagia, Sandakan, which destroyed 1,000 homes on Sunday (April 19).
He is expected to begin his visit to the disaster site near Masjid Kampung Bahagia at 4.20 pm, before meeting residents who lost their homes and are being accommodated at three temporary evacuation centres (PPS).
Anwar will meet victims at PPS Sekolah Kebangsaan (SK) Gas at 4.35 pm, followed by a stop at PPS Dewan Program Perumahan Rakyat (PPR) Taman Batu Sapi at 5 pm.
His working visit will conclude with a stop at PPS Dewan Lintas Sibuga at 5.30 pm.
The Prime Minister will assess the condition of victims in these temporary shelters while ensuring the smooth management and delivery of aid to those affected.
The fire, which broke out in the water village of Kampung Bahagia, destroyed around 1,000 homes and affected an area of more than four hectares. — Bernama