Malaysia: Commentary: Kelantan’s epic struggles with great, yellow floods each monsoon
By Serina Abdul Rahman
Malaysia saw some of its worst floods in 2014 with Kelantan suffering the brunt of the damage. Some 202,000 people in the state were displaced and 13 died.
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Then-Prime Minister Najib Razak was on holiday in the US and elected not to declare a state of emergency upon his return. But that didn’t stop Malaysian civil society groups from getting swiftly into action to mobilise help for those stranded without food or clean water.
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Significant floods were recorded in 1927 and 1967 in Kelantan. Every year since 2014, heavy rainfall coupled with high tides threaten the return of Bah Kuning (yellow flood) – named so by locals because of the food waters’ high mud content.
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Kelantan has always been an opposition state, ruled by the Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS). Distrust and other tensions between the state and the federal government hampers effective collaboration for both disaster relief and habitat conservation.
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