LEARNING ISSUE: FLOOD

Flood can be defined as a body of water, rising, swelling and overflowing land which do not
usually covered. Flooding may occur as an overflow of water from water bodies, such as a river
or lake, in which the water overtops or break sleeves, resulting in some of that water escaping
its usual boundaries, or it may occur due to an accumulation of rainwater on saturated ground in
an areal flood.
There are no formal categorizations of floods in Malaysia but is often broadly categorised as
monsoonal, flash or tidal floods. In addition, floods are also described based on its location,
characteristics, the cause, the timing as to when it occurs and its duration.
Flood occurrences seem to be getting more frequent in recent years where rapid urbanisation is
taking place. The main causes of flooding in Malaysia are as follows:

Human induced floods: Disposal of solid wastes into rivers, sediments from land

clearance and construction areas, increase in impervious areas and obstruction and
constriction in the rivers.
Loss of flood storage as a result of development extending into and taking over
floodplains and drainage corridors.
Increased runoff rates due to urbanisation.
Inadequate drainage systems or failure of localised drainage improvement works,
extended insufficiently downstream.
Constriction at bridges and culverts that are either undersized or partially blocked
by debris build-up or from other causes.
Siltation in waterway channels from indiscriminate land clearing operations.
Tidal backwater effect

Inadequate river capacity

Disaster tends to happened for good and bad reasons. Thus, the outcome produced can be
benefit and also harmful.
Positive: Sustaining, enriching and rejuvenating certain sector of biodiversity in
the floodplains, replenishes the land with nutrient rich soils and therefore good for
agriculture and natural vegetation, clear debris as well as remove sediments from the
flooded area, recharges groundwater storage

Negative: threaten lives, disrupt social and economic activities and destroy

properties, causes distress and recovery can be costly both to individuals and the
Government, and deterred new investment in the flood prone area.

In order to avoid and minimize the damage caused by flood, the Government took several
positive steps to deal with the flood problem. Among these were:
1. Flood Relief Machinery and Organization
Government has established the Natural Disaster Relief Committee in 1972 with the task of
coordinating flood relief operations at national, state and district levels with a view to prevent
loss of human lives and to reduce flood damage. Drainage and Irrigation Department (DID) is
one of the committee members and the organization of flood relief and operation is based on
the Operation Procedure No.29 published by the National Security Council. Beside that, DID
has published Circular No.2/2003-"Guidelines for Management of Flood Disaster during the
Monsoon Season and Flash Floods" which is to coordinate the preparation of flood operations
at federal, state and district levels.
2. Flood Mitigation Measures
a. Structural measures (engineering solution)
Structural measures are actually engineering methods which include the following:

bunding of river - prevents overtopping and flooding of the low lying adjacent

areas.
flood control dam - to retain flood water in order to protect areas downstream of
the dams.
flood diversion channel or tunnel - excess flood water has to be retained
upstream in storage ponds or diverted downstream through a flood diversion channel or
tunnel.
poldering (ring bud) - is the provision of a ring bund surrounding the area to be
protected. This is normally carried out for an area which has high damage potential.

infrastructure works

b. Non structural measures

Non-structural measures are employed more for preventing floods from occurring and with the
aim of minimising losses due to flooding. These measures are broadly aimed at reducing the
flood magnitude through the management of catchment conditions as well as reducing the
flood damage. These measures comprise the following:

master plan study

compliance with laws, acts and guidelines - Suitable guidelines and design

standards have been prepared, specifying clear requirements, both as well as technical,
for rivers and their reserves, as well as flood mitigation and urban drainage projects.

Integrated River Basin Management (IRBM) - whole river basin is planned in an

integrated manner and all factors are taken into consideration when a certain
development plan is proposed.
awareness campaign and education programmes
flood forecasting and warning - is an important, practical and low-cost measure to
minimise flood losses.
catchment management
flood proofing - implementation of protective works to prevent the entry of flood
water into individual houses and specific places.
relocation