SYNOPSIS

Flood top the lists of water-related disasters in Malaysia which happen almost every year. Other less significant disasters occurring are drought, landslides, debris and mud flows and tsunamis. A total of 33,298 square kilometers which is about 10.1% of the total area of the country lies in flood-prone areas in which 5.7 million people live which represents about 21 % of Malaysia’s population.

The presentation will incorporate background of water related hazards or disasters including climatic, hydrology and physical characteristics, economic and social information, water-related disaster status and issues, national policy, legal and institutional set-up, lessons learnt from the past and future agenda to mitigate and adapt to water related disasters.

Since 1965 there were 9 major flood events recorded in Malaysia with more than 50,000 victims evacuated in each event. The worst flood event occurred in December 2014 in the east coast States of Peninsular Malaysia covering Kelantan, Pahang and Terengganu with more than 500,000 victims forced to be evacuated.

Drought is the second most serious hazards in Malaysia after flood which frequently occurs during dry periods in certain parts of the country.  Hot and dry weather spells in the first half of 2014 had caused water supply crisis in the Klang Valley covering Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya and the State of Selangor with water rationing imposed, affecting more than 1 million people. It was just recently in August 2015, two dams in the State of Johor, that is Sg Lebam Dam and Sg Layang Dam which supply water to 655,000 consumers, have drop below critical levels as the hot spells continue in the southern Peninsular Malaysia. It is also expected that climate change would likely induce greater severity and longer duration of drought in future.

Landslides are another disaster in Malaysia which occurs occasionally from time to time. Areas at risk of land slides are in highlands and hilly slopes where disturbances to hydrological cycle took place due to urbanization, deforestation and extensive farming on hill slopes. Well known tragedies caused by landslides were the collapse of Highland Tower building in Kuala Lumpur in 1993 causing 48 deaths and the 1996 Pos Dipang tragedy in Perak in which 44 people died.

There are 7 other major land slide events that occur since the Highland Tower tragedy in 1993 causing many deaths and damages to properties. Most of the landslides were located in hilly land slopes and occur during heavy rain with high intensities.


BIODATA SPEAKER

Dato’ Ir Haji Hanapi bin Mohamad Noor is currently the Vice Chairperson of the Malaysian Water Partnership (MyWP) and  Steering Committee Member of the Global Water Partnership-South East Asia(GWP-SEA). He retired from the public service in January 2016 after serving for more than 35 years with the Department of Irrigation and Drainage, Malaysia in various capacities including State Director of Perlis and Penang, Director of River Basin Management and Director of Water Resources and Hydrology Division. Dato’ Hanapi is also actively involved in NGOs and is currently the Council Member of IEM, Adviser of Water Resources Technical Division IEM, Vice President of Malaysian Hydrological Society (MHS), Associate of Akademi Sains Malaysia and President of the Netherlands Alumni Association, Malaysia (NAAM).

Dato’ Ir Haji Hanapi’s key contribution and experiences include serving as Head of Secretariat for the Review of the National Water Resources Study (2000-2050), Formulation of the National Water Resources Policy (2012) and Sg Klang River of Life Project. He also represented Malaysia as Head of Malaysian Delegation in several international forums such as Inter Governmental Council Meeting on International Hydrological Programme (UNESCO-IHP), Regional Steering Committee Meeting of UNESCO-IHP for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, Steering Commitee of Global Water Partnership-South East Asia (GWP-SEA) and ASEAN Working Group on Water Resources Management.  

Currently,Dato‘ Ir Haji Hanapi is involved as Project Director in the development of the National Water Balance System (NAWAB) for Sg Muda, Sg Kedah and Sg Bernam River Basins as consultant to DID Malaysia.