PORTAL RASMI
JABATAN PERDANA MENTERI
AGENSI PENGURUSAN BENCANA NEGARA
JABATAN PERDANA MENTERI
AGENSI PENGURUSAN BENCANA NEGARA
PARIS: Almost three quarters of the globe’s cultural and natural heritage sites are threatened by too little or too much water, the UN’s cultural agency said on Tuesday.
As a result of rising temperatures, extreme weather events including hurricanes, droughts, floods and heatwaves have become more frequent and intense, scientists warn.
Seventy-three percent of all 1,172 non-marine sites on the UNESCO Heritage List are exposed to at least one severe water risk -- including water stress, drought, river flooding or coastal flooding, UNESCO said.
“Water stress is projected to intensify, most notably in regions like the Middle East and North Africa, parts of South Asia and northern China — posing long-term risks to ecosystems, cultural heritage, and the communities and tourism economies that depend on them,“ it added.
Cultural sites were most commonly threatened by water scarcity, while more than half of natural sites faced the risk of flooding from a nearby river, the UNESCO study showed.
In India, the Taj Mahal monument in Agra, for example, “faces water scarcity that is increasing pollution and depleting groundwater, both of which are damaging the mausoleum,“ the study said.
In the United State, “in 2022, a massive flood closed down all of Yellowstone National Park and cost over $20 million in infrastructure repairs to reopen.”
The report gave four more examples.
Iraq’s southern marshes -- the reputed home of the biblical Garden of Eden -- “face extremely high water stress, where over 80 percent of the renewable supply is withdrawn to meet human demand”, it added.
And competition for water is expected to increase in the marshes, where migratory birds live and inhabitants raise buffalo, as the region grows hotter in coming years.
On the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe, the Victoria Falls -- originally called Mosi-oa-Tunya (”the smoke that thunders”) before it was renamed by Scottish explorer David Livingstone -- has faced recurring drought and is sometimes reduced to a trickle.
In Peru, the pre-Colombian city of Chan Chan and its delicate 1,000-year-old adobe walls face an extremely high risk of river flooding, UNESCO said.
In China, rising sea levels driven in large part by climate change are leading to coastal flooding, which destroys mudlands where migratory waterbirds find food, it added.
NEW DELHI: The death toll in a chemical factory blast in southern India rose to 45 on Tuesday as more bodies were retrieved from the rubble.
The facility at Pashamylaram near Telangana state's capital Hyderabad belonged to Sigachi Industries Limited.
It made microcrystalline cellulose (MCC), a clarified wood pulp in powder form used in industries such as food and beverage, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics.
There were 143 people at the site when the blast occurred in a reactor and caused a huge fire, according to local media reports. The latest death toll was 45, with 35 reported injured.
Sigachi Industries said in a statement on Monday that the damaged plant will be shut for 90 days "to facilitate replacement and restoration of affected equipment and structures."
Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy said the state government will discuss with the company's management a compensation of 10 million rupees to each family of the deceased.
He criticised the company's response to the mishap. "More than 24 hours have passed, where is your MD (managing director)? He has to come," Reddy was quoted as saying in media reports. – BERNAMA
SYDNEY: Penduduk di kediaman tepi pantai utara Sydney diarahkan berpindah, manakala ribuan orang terputus bekalan elektrik akibat ribut kuat yang melanda pada Selasa.
Xinhua melaporkan ribut melanda pantai timur Australia pada pagi Selasa, membawa hujan lebat dan angin kencang yang mencetuskan amaran kecemasan di hampir seluruh kawasan pantai negeri New South Wales (NSW), termasuk Sydney.
Pihak berkuasa pada petang Selasa menasihatkan penduduk rumah pinggiran air di Pantai Tengah NSW, 65 km di utara Sydney agar berpindah berikutan ancaman ombak besar yang boleh merosakkan bangunan.
Syarikat pengedar tenaga Ausgrid memaklumkan setakat 5 petang waktu tempatan, kira-kira 21,000 pelanggan di Sydney, Pantai Tengah dan kawasan berdekatan Hunter mengalami gangguan bekalan elektrik selepas tiang elektrik tumbang akibat ribut.
Dalam satu sidang media, Menteri Perkhidmatan Kecemasan NSW, Jihad Dib berkata hujan dan angin dijangka bertambah buruk sepanjang Selasa malam hingga ke Rabu.
"Keadaan dijangka semakin buruk dalam tempoh 24 jam akan datang," katanya.
Dib menggesa orang ramai agar sentiasa mengikuti amaran kecemasan terkini, mengelakkan perjalanan yang tidak perlu dan tidak memandu merentasi kawasan banjir.
Amaran cuaca buruk yang dikemas kini oleh Biro Meteorologi sebelum 5 petang menyatakan bahawa hujan lebat yang boleh menyebabkan banjir kilat berbahaya dijangka melanda Wilayah Illawarra di selatan Sydney lewat Selasa malam.
Perkhidmatan Kecemasan Negeri (SES) NSW menasihatkan penduduk di kawasan sepanjang 80 km di antara Bandar Jervis Bay dan Batemans Bay, di selatan Sydney agar kekal berada di dalam rumah.
Timbalan Pesuruhjaya SES NSW, Debbie Platz memberitahu radio Perbadanan Penyiaran Australia, pokok tumbang dilaporkan di Sydney dan Pantai Tengah.
Lebih 1,000 sukarelawan dikerahkan oleh SES bagi membantu pasukan kecemasan dalam memberi tindak balas terhadap panggilan bantuan.
--BERNAMA-XINHUA
BINTULU, 1 Julai: Seramai 27 penghuni terselamat dalam kejadian kebakaran membabitkan lapan rumah di Kampung Sebuan Besar, Jepak di sini, hari ini.
Jabatan Bomba dan Penyelamat Malaysia (JBPM) Sarawak memaklumkan dua rumah musnah hampir keseluruhan, manakala enam rumah terbakar antara 10 hingga 100 peratus dalam kejadian itu.
JBPM menerima panggilan mengenai kejadian pada kira-kira jam 2.35 petang.
“Pasukan dari Balai Bomba dan Penyelamat (BBP) Bintulu tiba di lokasi jam 2.46 petang dan mendapati api sedang marak melibatkan lapan struktur rumah,” menurut kenyataan JBPM.
Menurut kenyataan itu, operasi diketuai Pegawai Bomba Kanan II (PPgB) Francis Aceh dan kebakaran berjaya dikawal pada jam 3.30 petang sebelum kerja overhaul dilakukan.
Operasi ditamatkan sepenuhnya pada jam 5.22 petang.
Pasukan bomba menggunakan konsep pemadaman R.E.C.E.O dengan satu aliran salur bantu mula, dua aliran dua bahagian sepanjang 600 kaki menggunakan tiga nozel dari pili bomba serta satu aliran 200 kaki dari jentera Scania BBP Kidurong.
JASIN: Kementerian Pembangunan Kerajaan Tempatan (KPKT) memperuntukkan RM165,000 untuk Program Baik Pulih Rumah bawah Program Pembasmian Kemiskinan Bandar (PPKB) di DUN Bemban.
Exco negeri Datuk Rais Yasin berkata, peruntukan itu melibatkan pembaikan empat rumah dengan kos RM20,000 setiap satu. Satu rumah lagi dibina semula dengan kos RM85,000 selepas rosak akibat bencana.
Setiap kerosakan dinilai oleh agensi berkaitan untuk menentukan kos baik pulih. Beliau berkata demikian semasa Program Sentuhan Kasih Majlis Perbandaran Jasin (MPJ) hari ini.
Sebelum ini, Rais melawat penerima program di Pondok Kempas dan Kesang Tua sempena Program Wakil Rakyat Untuk Rakyat (WRUR) DUN Bemban.
MPJ turut menyumbang barangan elektrik dan kit makanan kepada penerima. Rais berkata WRUR membantu menyalurkan aduan rakyat dan memastikan tindakan pantas diambil.
Salah seorang penerima, Rohana Mohamad Nasir, 66, bersyukur atas bantuan itu. “Sekarang saya tidak perlu risau bumbung bocor setiap kali hujan,” katanya.