We welcome the announcement that the National Disaster Management Agency (Nadma) will coordinate preparedness measures in response to the El Niño phenomenon, which is expected to persist until 2027.
However, disaster preparedness should not be confined to emergency response measures alone. It must also encompass preventive actions that address the root causes of environmental degradation, which increase disaster risks and undermine public well-being.
El Niño not only heightens the risks of extreme heat and drought, but can also exacerbate pollution, water scarcity, open burning, biodiversity loss, deteriorating air quality, and threats to national food security.
Therefore, all routine operations and maintenance activities undertaken by ministries, government departments, local authorities, government-linked companies (GLCs), private sector entities, educational institutions, and individuals must ensure that their activities do not contribute to environmental pollution or become sources of preventable disasters.
Activities such as open burning, uncontrolled waste disposal, unjustified felling of shade trees, inadequate drainage maintenance, river pollution, and neglect of green spaces are among the factors that accelerate soil degradation, increase local temperatures, worsen flash floods, and disrupt ecological balance.
Although open burning has long been prohibited, large-scale fires continue to be reported as originating from the burning of waste and agricultural residues by farmers and smallholders.
At the same time, the practice of burning dry leaves and landscape maintenance waste remains common in government premises, schools, higher education institutions, and various public facilities.
Such practices send contradictory messages to the public and indirectly normalize open burning, which contributes to air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.
In reality, effective climate action requires focus on three fundamental priorities:
- Reducing greenhouse gas emissions across all sectors of development and economic activity.
- Minimising waste generation, as waste disposal and decomposition processes also produce greenhouse gas emissions.
- Conserving forests, trees, and natural ecosystems that function as carbon sinks, water retention systems, and regulators of local temperatures.
In this context, efforts to promote public transportation must be strengthened as an integral component of the nation’s climate action strategy.
Adequate funding should be allocated to ensure that public transport systems remain safe, efficient, reliable, and attractive to users.
At the same time, improved parking management and consistent enforcement by local authorities can help reduce excessive reliance on private vehicles and improve urban mobility.
We further emphasize that mature trees, which provide shade, reduce local temperatures, absorb carbon, and enhance the quality of life of communities, should not be removed except where there are compelling and unavoidable safety concerns.
All shade trees should be professionally managed and maintained by qualified arboriculture specialists to ensure that their ecological, economic, and social benefits are preserved for future generations.
With regard to the recent fish mortality incident at Danau Kota Lake, we believe that all responsible agencies must conduct comprehensive, transparent, and science-based investigations. Malaysia is a country that receives high levels of rainfall throughout the year.
Therefore, heavy rainfall should not be used as a general explanation for every incident involving fish kills, flash floods, riverbank collapses, or drainage system failures without identifying the underlying causes and contributing factors.
Transparency in reporting investigation findings is essential to ensure accountability among agencies entrusted with managing public resources and the environment. Such transparency also facilitates corrective actions and prevents escalating management costs from being unfairly borne by taxpayers.
We would also like to share observations from cage fish farmers along the Pahang River who have been operating since the early 1990s. During that period, fish mortality rates were typically between 5 and 20 per cent.
Today, many operators report mortality rates ranging from 60 to 80 per cent, significantly affecting their livelihoods and forcing some to seek secondary sources of income to sustain their families.
This situation suggests that declining water quality and river pollution are having serious impacts on inland fisheries and national food security. These issues require stronger monitoring, stricter enforcement, and comprehensive restoration efforts.
The public must also recognize that a substantial proportion of the nation’s fisheries resources depend on healthy natural ecosystems.
Similarly, fruit and vegetable production relies heavily on pollination services provided by bees, butterflies, bats, and many other pollinator species.
The loss of biodiversity and continued environmental degradation will have direct consequences for food production, livelihoods, and national resilience.
In light of these challenges, we call for greater awareness and understanding of the interconnections between climate change, pollution, biodiversity conservation, natural resource management, and food security among village heads, community leaders, district officers, heads of government departments, local authorities, and policymakers at all levels of government.
National preparedness for El Niño through 2027 is not the responsibility of Nadma alone. It is a shared national responsibility that requires the active participation of all levels of government and all segments of society.
Only through a whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach can Malaysia strengthen its resilience, reduce disaster risks, safeguard the environment, and secure the well-being of present and future generations.
This press release was issued by Muhammad Sha’ani Abdullah, chairman of Sustainable Development Network, Malaysia (Susden Malaysia).
- This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of CodeBlue.
