In a letter to Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob, the All-Party Parliamentary Group Malaysia on Sustainable Development Goals recommended 11 measures to create a holistic and comprehensive disaster management system.
It said the RCI must investigate all aspects of governance, preparedness, response and communications among the federal, state and local governments in their search and rescue operations.
The RCI should also identify the local factors that contributed to the floods.
The group called for a review of land developments and the state and local governments’ structural plans as well as the degazetting of forest reserves.
“The National Forestry Act 1984 needs to be reviewed and strengthened, by involving public participation in the degazetting processes of these forest reserves,” it said.
Its other recommendations include:
- Speeding up the creation of the National Adaptation Plan (myNAP) that has been on the drawing board since 2015. This plan is crucial for building resilience among crucial sectors vulnerable to climate change such as water, food security, infrastructure, public health, community and biodiversity;
- Reviewing and halting developments at environmentally sensitive and vulnerable areas;
- Transforming cities and urban areas into “sponge cities” that are able to resist floods as well as counter water supply shortages;
- Implementing community-based disaster risk management throughout the country to build community resilience to disasters in the future;
- Creating mechanisms to expedite “build back better” plans in disaster-hit areas in terms of infrastructure repairs, recovery of sources of income, healthcare and psychosocial services;
- Creating a climate change commission to supervise all related matters, including adaptations and disaster risk management; and
- Applying nature-based solutions such as expediting the gazetting of forest reserves, water catchment areas, creating a moratorium on logging activities, reviewing logging approvals and incentivising state governments that preserve forest reserves with ecological fiscal transfer.