Over the past couple of days, Penang has been hit by blustering winds, swollen tides and torrential rain. Trees crashed down in several areas, like they did in Singapore.
The heavy rains have at least helped to fill up Penang’s dams, where water levels had fallen to worrying levels of late.
The cloud cover over Penang over the last two days appeared almost dystopian.
But it is the high tides that thrust seawater onto several seafronts yesterday morning that are cause for grave long-term concern.
Among the areas affected by seawater overflow were Padang Kota on the island and Robina Park, Bagan Lebai Tahir and Bagan Ajam on the mainland.
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This is not the first time that seawater has spilled on the land in Butterworth. Parts of Bagan, the town centre, were under a couple of inches of water some years ago – presumably overflow from the sea. The coastal stretch of the Butterworth Outer Ring Road, part of it built on reclaimed land, faces a threat from high tides.
In 2021, further south along the Straits of Malacca, high tides overflowed in several parts of Klang.
Six years ago, one Penang state government leader claimed that land reclamation would help protect the state from rising sea levels. He must have had a laugh on us.
It is seriously time to protect and beef up the stretches where the seawater gushed over the seafront yesterday. Also look at drainage in critical areas.
For the longer term, we need a masterplan for the whole of Malaysia to protect coastal areas that could be submerged in the future if we do nothing. Part of this plan could include replanting coastal stretches with mangroves to obstruct rising waters. After all, areas like Bagan Ajam once had mangrove trees along the entire coast before they were removed.
On another note, the overflowing seawater dumped piles of rubbish from the sea to the land.
This prompted one passer-by, an octogenarian, to remark wryly, “People throw stuff into the sea. Now the sea throws it back at us.”
Images of litter from the sea thrown back on land were also spotted on Penang Island, prompting similar remarks from concerned observers.
It’s time we take care of our ecosystem given the challenges of climate change and rising sea levels.
AGENDA RAKYAT - Lima perkara utama
- Tegakkan maruah serta kualiti kehidupan rakyat
- Galakkan pembangunan saksama, lestari serta tangani krisis alam sekitar
- Raikan kerencaman dan keterangkuman
- Selamatkan demokrasi dan angkatkan keluhuran undang-undang
- Lawan rasuah dan kronisme
