PENANG Forum has urged the state government to ensure adequate safety measures are in place to prevent environmental mishaps.

Penang Forum’s steering committee said they could offer short- and long-term measures that could be adopted by the government.

For the short term, they suggested a moratorium be placed on all development projects involving hill cutting while monitoring ongoing hill slope developments.

“In the long term, (the government must) broaden the scope of developmental planning to take into account the full range of factors – natural and man-made – that lead to landslides and flash floods,” it said in a statement today.

Calling the weather phenomenon that affected Penang and Kedah over the weekend as “unusual”, they said two separate storms were apparent in Southeast Asia – Typhoon Damrey over Vietnam and another north of the Malacca straits over Penang.

“This second vortex was created by the cold North East wind from the Gulf of Thailand meeting warmer winds and rain clouds from the Indian Ocean and Andaman Sea, creating a violent, swirling storm system.

“It would seem that the direct cause of the storm and heavy rains experienced on November 4 and 5 is this vortex over Penang, although the side effects of Typhoon Damrey cannot be ruled out,” it said.

Penang Forum said it was crucial for development to be carried out “with due consideration” because of evolving weather patterns and Penang’s fragile natural environment.

“It is important to take cognisance of this unusual phenomenon because it has not been known or reported to have occurred before, and may portend more such phenomena to occur in the future, which will bode more difficult times for Penang and its surroundings.

“While we may not be able to prevent storms and inclement weather from occurring in the future, we can, however, work to prevent them from resulting in flash floods and landslide disasters.”

Heavy rain lashed Penang for some 15 hours on Saturday, and the strong winds that came with it wreaked havoc and created floods in Penang.

The flood have claimed seven lives – five Malaysians, one Bangladeshi and a seventh victim found near Stadium Bandaraya Pulau Pinang in Jalan Dato Keramat.

The number of flood victims evacuated to relief centres in Penang increased to 7,294 people from 1,774 families as of noon from 6,080 people from 1,572 families this morning.

A police flood operations room spokesman said water levels in several areas had begun to recede and residents were returning to their homes to clean their houses.

Meanwhile the number of victims in Kedah dropped to 442 people as of 4pm today, compared with 982 recorded this morning. – November 7, 2017.