The Star- Flood

We should think....

DEEPAVALI is the festival of lights. But sadly not so for those in Kedah and Perlis due to the flood situation.
From the news and accounts of family and friends who live in the affected areas of Kedah, I am sorely disappointed with the handling by the authorities.
Whenever the floods hit, the only measures undertaken are the evacuation of affected folks to relief centres. When flood waters are gone, they go home, clean up and carry on with their lives.
Floods hit again a few years later, and you have the same cycle of action.
It appears the local authorities have not bothered to learn lessons from major floods in the past to take proactive measures in improving the facilities to prevent and contain or limit damage from floods.
To begin with, Kedahans have lived with substandard drainage systems for umpteen years, but the previous floods were not serious enough to shut down Alor Star airport and cut off entire districts.
The current flood crisis has brought to light a very obvious need to improve the drainage system in Kedah.
Crisis communication measures are found lacking and wanting: considering that 50,000 have to be evacuated, it is nothing short of shocking that both the city councils of Kangar and Kota Setar have nothing on their websites for people to seek information and support.
No emergency hotline to call, no announcements pertaining to the flood situation to keep the population informed.
The e-Aduan feedback form on the MBAS (Majlis Bandaran Alor Star) website isn’t working, while Majlis Perbandaran Kangar doesn’t even provide a form on their website to make it convenient for people to provide feedback to them.
While the floods took the lower-lying remote towns of northern Kedah by surprise, it was obvious that Alor Star had enough time to prepare and institute some measures in the housing areas to keep out the waters, like sandbagging or constructing concrete barriers at the canals and waterways.
Instead, no serious warning or advice were issued so that people can be prepared, no measures were undertaken to contain the flood waters or improve the drainage systems. Evacuation to relief centres, closing the flooded roads and shutting down the water supply was what happened.
I’m not belittling the efforts of the emergency services who have evacuated and rescued people from affected areas because saving lives during an emergency is of paramount importance. Neither am I deliberately throwing egg on someone’s face.
My whole point is: if the local authorities talk so much about being proactive, they’d do much better to walk the talk.