2nd International Conference on Environment, Agriculture and Food Sciences (ICEAFS'2013) August 25-26, 2013 Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia)

Addressing Disaster Risk Reduction in

Malaysia: Mechanisms and Responds
Md. Sujahangir Kabir Sarkar 1, Rawshan Ara Begum2, Joy Jacqueline Pereira3,
and Abdul Hamid bin Jaafar4

to enhance the vulnerability of many of the societies and

Abstract The occurrence of disasters are increasing worldwide communities as well as to hamper many development
over time which significantly hampers the development activities and investments and efforts [1]. Moreover it is responsible for
results to damaging resources and livelihood. Managing the risks of environmental damage which is range from the felling of trees
disasters is crucial to reduce the impact of current and future
to the reshaping of entire landscapes. Fig. 1 shows an
disasters. This article provides an overview of the mechanisms and
responds for addressing disaster risk reduction in Malaysia. In increasing trend of natural disasters over the decade.
Malaysia, National Security Council is the principal policy making
and coordinating body for disaster management which is also
no. of disaster
national focal point of United Nations International Strategy for
Disaster Reduction. Malaysia as one of the parties of Hyogo 4000
Framework for Action (HFA) is implementing the recommendations 3500
of HFA to reduce the impacts of disasters. Though Malaysias govt 3000
and non-government organisations are working together to reduce the 2500
risks and impacts of disasters, but there is need a national integration 2000
which would facilitate the efforts of mainstreaming disaster risk 1500
reduction and climate change adaptation into policy, planning and
1000
development programmes.
500
Keywords Disaster, Disaster risk, Responds, Malaysia. 0
1950-1959 1960-1969 1970-1979 1980-1989 1990-1999 2000-2009

I. INTRODUCTION Fig. 1 Total number of reported natural disasters worldwide from

E VIDENCE shows that occurrence of disasters are

increasing worldwide over time which significantly
hampers the development activities and results to damaging
1950-2009 [2]

Though Malaysia is a less disaster prone country but it s not

resources and livelihood. Combine losses due to disaster is
beyond counting but it is belief that cost of disasters is so high
which hampers development activities and efforts. Data from
the Center for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters
(CRED) shows that 373 natural disasters took place in 2010,
killing nearly 300,000 people and affecting over 200 million
others, at a cost of nearly US$ 110 billion. Over the decade
number of reported disasters has significantly increased from
294 in 1950-1959 to 3530 in 2000-2008 as shown in Figure 1.
The impacts of disasters induced by climate change are likely
out of disaster. The impacts of climate related disasters are
being felt in Malaysia e.g. floods, landslides and haze which
causes losses in revenue and productivity and health risk
to the people; Climate Change is due to the increase in
GHG emission especially in CO2, CH4, N2O etc which
causes changes in ambient temperature, extreme weather
events, rise in sea water level, rapid long term changes in
weather patterns induced by human activities. The human and
economic losses due to several disasters from 1980-2010 in
Malaysia are shown in Table I.

TABLE I
1
Md. Sujahangir Kabir Sarkar, Ph.D. Research Fellow, Southeast Asia IMPACTS OF DISASTERS FROM 1980 TO 2010 IN MALAYSIA [3]
Disaster Prevention Research Institute (SEADPRI), Universiti Kebangsaan No of disaster events: 58
Malaysia, Bangi 43600, Selangor, Malaysia (Corresponding author email: No of people killed: 1,239
skabir_bau@yahoo.com) Average killed per year: 40
2
Rawshan Ara Begum, Associate professor, Institute of Climate Chnage No of people affected: 639,344
(IKP), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi 43600, Selangor, Malaysia Average affected per year: 20,624
(email: rawshan@ukm.my)
3 Economic Damage (US$ X 1,000): 1,867,500
Joy Jacqueline Pereira, Professor, Southeast Asia Disaster Prevention
Economic Damage per year (US$ X
Research Institute (SEADPRI), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi 60,242
1,000):
43600, Selangor, Malaysia (email: joy@ukm.my)
4
Abdul Hamid bin Jaafar, P rofessor, Faculty Economics and Management The most severe natural disaster experiencing in Malaysia is
(FEP), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi 43600, Selangor, Malaysia flood. According to EM-DAT statistics, out of 58 disaster
(email: ahamid@ukm.my) event during the period of 1980 to 2010, 31 was flood. Some

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 2nd International Conference on Environment, Agriculture and Food Sciences (ICEAFS'2013) August 25-26, 2013 Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia)

of the recorded flood experiences in the country occur in 1983, assistance; an unforeseen and often sudden event that causes
1988, 1993, 1998, 2001, 2006 and 2007. Report from great damage, destruction and human suffering [8].
Department of Irrigation and Drainage stated that about 29,000
sq. km or 9% of total land area is affected by flooding B. Disaster Risk
annually. Damage cause by flood is estimated about RM915 Disaster risk arises when hazards interact with physical,
million [4]. The top 10 disasters according to the number of social, economic and environmental vulnerabilities. Events of
affected people and damage cost are shown in the Table II. hydro meteorological origin constitute the large majority of
TABLE II
disasters. Despite the growing understanding and acceptance
TOP 10 DISASTERS FROM 1980-2010 ACCORDING TO AFFECTED of the importance of disaster risk reduction and increased
POPULATION AND DAMAGE COST [3] disaster response capacities, disasters and in particular the
Population Cost (US$
management and reduction of risk continue to pose a global
Disaster Year Disaster Year challenge [9]. Fig. 2 shows the relationship of vulnerability,
affected 000)
Flood 2007 137,533 Flood 2007 605,000 hazard and disaster (See Fig.2 in Appendix I).
Flood 2006 100,000 Earthquake 2004 500,000
Flood 1988 60,000 Flood 2007 363,000 C. Disaster Risk Management
Storm 2004 40,000 Wildfire 1997 300,000
Flood 2005 30,000 Storm 1996 52,000 Disaster risk management (DRM) is the systematic process
Flood 2007 29,000 Flood 2006 22,000 of using administrative decisions, organization, operational
Flood 1986 25,000 Flood 1986 11,500 skills and capacities to implement policies, strategies and
Flood 1993 25,000 Flood 2004 10,000
Epidemic 1997 19,544 Wildfire 1998 2,000
coping capacities of the society and communities to lessen the
Flood 2001 18,000 Flood 2000 1,000 impacts of natural hazards and related environmental and
technological disasters. This comprises all forms of activities,
Though the country is mostly affected by flood but it is also including structural and non-structural measures to avoid
experiencing some other disasters such as drought, land slide (prevention) or to limit (mitigation and preparedness) adverse
Tsunami etc. that have impacted the country in terms of loss of effects of hazards [5].
livelihood, property damage, disruption and destruction of
services, economic as well as financial losses. For the past D. Disaster Risk Reduction
few decades, climate change has been observed in Malaysia Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) is a part of DRM which
through increasing temperature, changing rainfall patterns and describes the development and application of policies,
extreme weather conditions that lead to reported increasing strategies and practices that minimize vulnerabilities and
incidences of climate related disasters, such as floods,
disaster risks throughout a society, to avoid (prevention) or to
droughts and landslides. Malaysia is indeed committed to
limit (mitigation and preparedness) the adverse impacts of
disaster risk reduction and continues its efforts towards
hazards, within the broad context of sustainable development
implementing the priority areas of the Hyogo Framework for
Action (HFA) to build resilience of nations and communities [10, 11]. DRR uses a wide range of options including legal,
and cope better with the disasters that threaten development institutional and policy frameworks, administrative
goals. This Framework supports a stronger recognition of mechanisms and procedures related to risk reduction of current
climate change concerns in disaster risk reduction strategies and future disasters. The Hyogo Framework for Actions
and seeks to establish multi-disciplinary, forward looking (HFA) has outlined the roadmap for DRR, encompassing
approach [5]. To reduce the disaster risk, it is important to governance, risk assessment and early warning, knowledge
focus disaster risk reduction (DRR) measures at the national and education, underlying risk factors in the context of
and local level as well [6, 7]. This article provides an overview development and disaster preparedness and response [12].
of the Malaysian mechanisms and responds to DRR
III. DISASTER MANAGEMENT IN MALAYSIA
II. CONCEPTS AND DEFINITIONS
Managing the risks of disasters is crucial to reduce the
A. Disaster impact of current and future disasters. In Malaysia, the
At the outset of its advocacy for the International Decade National Security Council (NSC) is the principal policy
for Natural Disaster Reduction or IDNDR, the United Nations making and coordinating body for disaster management which
promoted its working definition for disaster as a serious has prepared NSC Directive No. 20 as "Policy and Mechanism
disruption of the functioning of society, causing widespread on National Disaster and Relief Management" on 11 May
1997. The NSC coordinates and plans all activities related to
human, material or environmental losses which exceed the
preparedness, prevention, response/relief operations and
ability of the affected people to cope using its own resources.
recovery/rehabilitation of disaster management [13]. NSC
Disasters are often classified according to their cause viz.
established the Disaster Management and Relief Committee
Natural or man-made. CRED defines a disaster as a situation (DMRC) with the major aim of coordinating disasters at the
or event which overwhelms local capacity, necessitating a three different levels, namely: Districts, States and Federal
request to a national or international level for external which is described in fig. 3 (See Fig. 3 in Appendix I). The

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 2nd International Conference on Environment, Agriculture and Food Sciences (ICEAFS'2013) August 25-26, 2013 Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia)
committee works for information dissemination, search and
rescue, medical service, security and welfare by taking help
from different government agencies and organization which
reduce the impacts of disasters. Managing the disaster risk is
crucial to reduce the impacts of disasters. In Malaysia the main
agencies involved in disaster management [14, 15] include the
following:
National Security Council (NSC)
Ministry of Natural Resource and Environment
Ministry of Energy, Green Technology and water
The Royal Malaysian Police
The Royal Malaysian Army
Special Malaysia Disaster Assistance and Rescue Team
(SMART)
Malaysian Meteorological Service (MMS)
Drainage and Irrigation Department (DID)
The Public Works Department (PWD)
Social Welfare Department
The Local Authority
Non-Governmental Organizations (eg. Malaysian Red
Crescent Society and Scout Society
Civil Defense Department
Other National and International Cooperation
Table III shows some of the non government organization
(NGOs) involvement in disaster management which provide
assistance in disaster mitigation, response, recovery,
rehabilitation and construction.
Table III
ROLE OF NGOS FOR DISASTER RISK MANAGEMENT IN MALAYSIA
Major NGOs Main activities
Malaysian Red Crescent Medical assistance and Rehabilitation
Society (MRCS)
Mercy Medical assistance and rehabilitation
JIM, ABIM Response, assistance, fund
Global Peace Malaysia Medical assistance and rehabilitation
Global Sikh Malaysia Health assistance and rehabilitation
AMAN Malaysia Rehabilitation and reconstruction
St. John ambulance Medical assistance
Force of Nature Fund
Haluan Malaysia Rehabilitation and reconstruction
IV. RESPONDS TO DISASTER RISK REDUCTION IN MALAYSIA
There are some major initiatives and responds have been
taken through different governmental organization and
agencies for reducing the risk of disasters in Malaysia.
National Security Council (NSC) is the principal policy
making and coordinating body for disaster management which
has prepared NSC Directive No. 20 as "Policy and Mechanism
on National Disaster and Relief Management" on 11 May
1997. The NSC coordinates and plans all activities related to
preparedness, prevention, response/relief operations and
recovery/rehabilitation of disaster management [13]. NSC is
now working as national focal point of United Nations
International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) and
translating the Hyogo Framework for Actions (HFA) through
the different policy and plan in Malaysia. Ministry of Energy,
Green Technology and Water has been made a National Green
Technology Policy in 2009 which promotes multiple
83
achievements by reducing disaster vulnerability and impacts,
tackling climate change by reducing GHG emissions and
safeguarding economic growth and development [16]. On the
other hand, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment
has implemented National Policy on Climate Change 2009
encourages climate resilient development through
mainstreaming climate change into DRR, integrating of
climate change responses into policies, plans and programmes
and strengthening of institutional and implementation capacity
[17]. The Environmental Quality Act also forms the basic
instrument for achieving environmental policy objectives [18].
Some other acts such as the Land Conservation Act, Town and
Country Planning Act, Irrigation and Drainage Act and
Uniform Building by Law also play important role for
reducing disaster risk in Malaysia. It is evident that so many
respond measures for DRR have taken by the Malaysia where
several organizations are involved. So there is need for
national integration for better performance of DRR at all level.
The major organizational responds regarding DRR in Malaysia
are summarized in Table IV (See Table IV in Appendix II).
V. CONCLUSION
Malaysia is experiencing frequent disasters such as flood
and landslides which the country faces enormous property loss
and livelihood damages. Thus, proper DRR mechanisms and
responds are essential to reduce the impact of current and
future disasters. The Government of Malaysia is indeed
committed to disaster risk reduction and continues its efforts
towards implementing the priority areas of the HFA. National
Security Council (NSC) is the principal policy making and
coordinating body for disaster management in Malaysia which
is also national focal point of UNISDR. Malaysia has already
taken several initiatives through policy, plan and actions
towards reducing disaster risk and enhancing resilience of the
nation. Though Malaysias govt and non-government
organizations are working together to reduce the risks and
impacts of disasters, but there is need a national integration for
tackling the two acute issues of the impacts of climate change
and disasters at all levels. The establishment of such a national
integration would facilitate the efforts of mainstreaming
disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation into
policy, planning, and development programmes at the national
and local levels.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors are greatly acknowledged to the research grant
Exploratory Research Grant Scheme (ERGS) under the
Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia (Project Code:
ERGS/1/2011/SS/UKM/02/29).
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 2nd International Conference on Environment, Agriculture and Food Sciences (ICEAFS'2013) August 25-26, 2013 Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia)

[3] EM-DAT: The OFDA/CRED International Disaster Database, -
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APPENDIX I

Vulnerability Disaster Hazard

Disaster =
Vulnerability + Hazard

Underlying causes Dynamic pressure Unsafe conditions Trigger event

Poverty Lack of Fragile physical Earthquake
Limited access to - Local institutions environment High wind, storm
- Power structure - Education - dangerous location Floods
- Resources - Training & skill - dangerous building Landslide
Ideologies - Local investments Drought
Economic system - Local markets Fragile local economy War, civil strife
Age, sex - Services - low levels of income Economic crisis
- livelihoods at risk Technological
Illness & disabilities Macro forces accident
- Population expansion Public actions
- Urbanization
- Environmental degradation
Fig. 2 Relationship of Vulnerability, Hazard and Disaster [19]

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 2nd International Conference on Environment, Agriculture and Food Sciences (ICEAFS'2013) August 25-26, 2013 Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia)

Central Disaster Management and relief committee

State Disaster Management and relief committee

District Disaster Management and relief committee

Media Search & rescue Health & medical service Security control
Information Malaysia Fire and Emergency medical service Royal Malaysia
department rescue dept. Malaysia armed forces police
Broadcasting Royal Malaysia police Red crescent society Voluntary service
department Malaysia armed force Malaysia (RELA)
Press coverage Special armed forces Saint John Ambulance Provide control at
Electronic media disaster assistance Management of forensic scene of incident
coverage Emergency medical service Conduct
Media control service Management of public investigation
Civil service dept. health Facilitate
communication

Welfare
Social welfare dept. Support
Emergency medical Evacuating disaster victims District office
service Preparing food for disaster District & town council
Red crescent society victims National electricity ltd
Malaysia Providing and managing the Telecom Malaysia bhd
Saint John Ambulance place of evacuation Malaysia armed forces
Malaysia Providing first aid and Royal Malaysia police
Voluntary service counseling services Public work dept.

Fig. 3 Disaster Management Mechanism of Malaysia [20]

APPENDIX II

TABLE IV
MALAYSIAN RESPONDS TO THE DRR RELATED MEASURES AT NATIONAL AND LOCAL LEVEL [13, 14, 16, 17, 18]
Agency/Organization Responses through policy, plan and act Main purpose/action
National Security Council of the Directive No. 20 on "Policy and Mechanism on Planning and coordinating activities that are implemented
Prime Ministers Department National Disaster and Relief Management" on 11 by the Disaster Management and Relief Committee at
May 1997 federal, state and local levels
Disaster Management and Relief Committee at National Focal point of DRR
federal, state and District level
Ministry of Natural Resources and National Policy on Climate Change 2009 Incorporate climate change into DRR
Environment Review and harmonizing policies, plan and legislation
related to DRR
National Focal Point to the UNFCCC
Ministry of energy, green National Green Technology Policy 2009 Reduce disaster vulnerability and impacts
technology and water Reduce GHG emissions and safeguarding economic growth
and development
Department of Irrigation and Urban Storm water Management Manual (MSMA) Feasibility assessment and execution of physical
Drainage & Department of Town in 2000 and Land Use Planning Appraisal for Risk developments
and Country Planning Areas (LUPAR) in 2005
Malaysian Meteorological National Tsunami Early Warning System Provide early warning on tsunami threat
Department
Public Works Department National Slope Master Plan Slope management and disaster risk reduction strategy for
landslides
The Economic Planning Unit, 10th Malaysia Plan Reduce emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs)
Prime Ministers Department
Department of Environment The Environmental Quality Act 1974 This act is related to the prevention, abatement, control of
pollution and enhancement of the environment in Malaysia

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