Expert: Weather could lead to rain and floods

The Star

 BY LOH FOON FONG AND SYED AZHAR

KUALA LUMPUR: An oceanographer has advised Malaysians to watch out for heavy rain, which could cause floods, in the next few days following the cooler weather.

The cold monsoon wind could get trapped in the warm atmospheric front once it hits the land mass in the east coast and Sabah and Sarawak, said Universiti Teknologi Malaysia’s Institute of Geospatial Science & Technology associate professor Dr Maged Mahmoud Marghany.

“The release of industrial pollution and heat in the atmospheric layer will cause extremely low atmospheric pressure.

“This will trap the strong monsoon wind and carry it inland and bring about heavy rain and flood,” said Dr Maged who studies physical and biological aspects of the seas.

Dr Maged said the severity of the heavy rain would depend on the severity of the heat and the contrast it would make when cold and hot air converged, resulting in condensation.

He said that in June 2006, the forest fire in Indonesia resulted in increased humidity and heat in the atmosphere and due to the slow weak wind above Johor, the heat still hovered in the area during the monsoon season.

When the cold north-east monsoon wind converged with the heat, it resulted in heavy rain and flood in Johor, the state nearest to the forest fire, he said.

Meanwhile, in Kuala Krai, Kelantan, the cold weather over the past few days has been a boon for garment shop operators.

A random check yesterday showed a marked increase in sales for cotton clothes and the residents in this district were seen wearing thick jackets or winter clothes.

A garment seller at a market, Mohd Rizwani Abdul Halim, 34, said sales of winter clothes have been good as it gets incredibly cold during the nights and early mornings.

“It had forced many to fork out money to buy such clothes to face the cold days ahead,” he said.

According to the Meteorological De­­partment’s website, the temperature in Kuala Krai was at 19°C on Thursday and 18°C on Friday.

NRD: MyKid card still valid for registration purposes

The star

BY LOH FOON FONG

PETALING JAYA: Although the National Registration Department (NRD) has temporarily stopped issuing the MyKid card, the document can still be used to register children in both government and private institutions.

The move to stop issuing the MyKid, a card issued to children below 12, had resulted in some parents wondering if the document is still recognised as a form of identification.

NRD public relations officer Jainisah Mohd Noor assured parents that the existing MyKid cards could still be used.

An undated brief announcement on the NRD website said the issuing of the MyKid card had been temporarily stopped until April to enable the NRD to improve on its security and other features.

It said the MyKid card had a chip that contained birth, health and education data.

It is portable and reduces the use of paper forms when dealing with government or private agencies such as hospitals or schools, while its security features prevent abuse.

“Those who cannot get one now can apply for it when it is re-introduced,” said Jainisah.

She said the MyKid card would be upgraded as it had been in use since 2003.

Lecturer Andrei Chew, 31, said he went to register his son’s birth in October and was told that no more MyKid cards would be issued.

“There were a variety of answers given but they did not know why the card was no longer being issued,” he said.

Chew, whose son was born on Sept 13, said parents he knew were not aware of the NRD announcement or when it was posted.

“The department should make a clear public announcement with an explanation, put up notices and inform its staff properly and not give people the runaround,” he said.

Moreover, the NRD need not stop issuing the MyKid card even though they were upgrading it, he said.

Some parents said the credit card-sized MyKid was useful as it was easier to carry than the A4-sized birth certificate.

Businessman Paul Sebastian, 39, said he carried his 20-month-old daughter Vanessa Maya Sebastian’s MyKid card around with him as it would be useful in the event of an emergency such as sending her to the hospital.

Housewife Nellie Song, 45, said the MyKid card did not seem to serve any purpose for her as some government processes still required one to produce birth certificates, including passport applications.

“I can’t recall any occasion where they asked for the MyKid card. In official forms, you are required to fill in the MyKid number but are not required to produce it,” said Song, whose son Wong Jun Wei, 11, has a MyKid card.

Radicare to be probed

BY LOH FOON FONG AND TASHNY SUKUMARAN

PETALING JAYA: Medical support services company Radicare will be probed to ensure it is fulfilling its responsibility, said Health Min­is­­ter Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam.

This came about following Radicare’s rubbish collection problem when it changed cleaning contractors in several hospitals, leading to overflowing rubbish and dirty toilets, as well as the shutting down of 12 out of 22 operating theatres (OTs) at Sungai Buloh Hospital after a fire.

“We cannot accuse them without looking at the matter. Certainly, there are contractual responsibilities they have and we will see if there are any lapses. If yes, there are punishments outlined in the contract allowing us to take action.

“What matters is how quickly the issue was addressed. For example, they immediately rectified the issue on rubbish collection,” he said yesterday.

Subramaniam said the OTs in Sungai Buloh Hospital would be up and running by Jan 21.

He stressed that the OT problem was not due to Radicare but caused by an electrical fire.

At the Sungai Buloh Hospital, rewiring work is being done to restore the OTs that were shut down following a fire. Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said all the wires linked to the 12 OTs were changed.

“We didn’t want to take any chances as we don’t know the extent of the damage,” he said, showing The Star the ongoing restoration work at the UPS (uninterrupted power supply or a battery backup) plant room following a fire at 1am on Jan 4.

Dr Noor Hisham said it was not known yet what triggered the electrical fire as the Fire and Rescue Department was still investigating it.

He said Radicare engineers had carried out regular maintenance work and visited the UPS plant room a week before and there was no issue then.

Radicare is the company which provides support services like engineering and maintenance for the hospital.

Put off elective surgery, says dept

BY LOH FOON FONG

PETALING JAYA: Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the Selangor Health Department has recommended the re-scheduling of non-life threatening elective surgery at the Sungai Buloh Hospital, which has been hit by an air-conditioning malfunction.

“In cases when there is a need, arrangements will be made to refer emergency cases to nearby hospitals,” he said.

Dr Noor Hisham said Radicare (M) Sdn Bhd was undertaking repairs and the installation a new uninterruptible power system (UPS).

He said the company would also bring in temporary portable UPS units to enable five more OTs to be used by next week.

“This will help ease the current shortage of OTs until all repair works are completed between two or three weeks,” he said.

Dr Noor Hisham said the fire and Rescue Department was still investigating the cause of a blaze which affected two units of high capacity 60 kVa UPS of the hospital.

Selangor State Health director Datuk Dr Azman Abu Bakar said the Sungai Buloh Hospital would work closely with the Serdang Hospital, Ampang Hospital, Selayang Hospital, Tengku Ampuan Rahimah Hospital and the Kajang Hospital on the arrangements of patient referrals.

“In the event it is still not adequate, we will call Kuala Lumpur Hospital for back-up,” he added.

Dr Azman refuted a news report that a Radicare staff had accidentally cut off some wires resulting in the shutting down of six day-care OTs.

He said that the electricity supply was switched off temporarily to enable Radicare engineers to assess the extent of damage caused by a short circuit in the 12 main OTs.

“There was also no negligence resulting in a shutdown of the six daycare OTs as alleged,” he said.

On the earlier problem of waste disposal affecting five hospitals in the state, he said 95% was already cleared by yesterday afternoon.

He said the problem occurred in the larger hospitals because the new sub-contractor lacked the manpower to handle the volume.

Radicare (M) Sdn Bhd public relations and communications manager Nurul Huda Kamarullul Arifin said the new sub-contractor, Alam Bersih, took over the job from previous sub-contractor Harta Maintenance Sdn Bhd on Jan 1 but could not cope with the workload in the major hospitals.

Related story: 
Sg Buloh docs losing their patience

Proposal to address erosion issue

BY LOH FOON FONG

PETALING JAYA: All local authorities and relevant authorities must make it compulsory for an erosion and sediment control plan (ESCP) to be prepared by certified professionals and submitted for development projects under its control.

In a position paper prepared by the Water Resources Technical Division of the Institution of Engineers Malaysia (IEM), its chairman Datuk Ahmad Fuad Embi said this was among the recommendations that IEM’s erosion and sedi­ment control sub-committee had proposed to the Government on how to address the massive erosion and sedimentation in the country.

“We must address this as it has led to enormous cost of rehabilitation for rivers and coasts.

“It has also led to loss of aquatic and marine habitat and this also affects our quality of life,” he said during a public forum on the subject yesterday.

Ahmad Fuad added that the plantation, mining, sand mining, agriculture, logging, highway and housing development sectors had contributed significantly to erosion and the subsequent sedimentation in the downstream areas.

He also pointed out that the situation was made worse by the lack of competency and enforcement of regulators, local authorities, consultants and contractors.

Ahmad Fuad also maintained that getting the ESCP certified by civil engineers was not enough and that these engineers should have adequate training in the area.

“In some places in Kuala Lumpur, the erosion rate is 5,000 times more than the natural erosion rate,” he said, adding that Kelantan (especially Lojing), Penang and Johor were also badly affected.

Ahmad Fuad said that the country had to spend half a billion ringgit each year on flood mitigation alone.

To counter this, he recommended that provisions under the Land Conservation Act 1960 that targets highland agriculture activities be enforced, as currently only Penang and Pahang are doing it.

“ESCPs must also be made a requirement for agriculture, sand mining and logging.

“It must be activated in all states and enforced,” he said, adding that the plan should be enforced by a technical agency and not the land office.

Ministry shuts down maternity centre after raid

BY LOH FOON FONG, LOSHANA K. SHAGAR, AND VANES DEVINDRAN

KUALA LUMPUR: A maternity centre in Setapak has been closed down by the Health Ministry in a raid for operating without a valid licence.

Officers raided the centre near Jalan Genting Kelang and sealed the place some three hours later after carrying out a complete search of all three floors of the building.

According to a ministry official, it acted on complaints from the public that the centre was operating without a licence, that its doctors were not trained for certain procedures and that it had a narrow lift.

Ministry officers, he said, had visite­d the centre on several occasions and had given the owners sufficient time to comply with regulations but it only partly fulfilled the recommendations.

Based on the outcome of the raid carried out on Tuesday night, the official said the ministry closed down the centre because it did not conform to the minimum standards of ensuring patients’ safety.

The building’s signage also did not indicate that it was a clinic and no registration number was seen on the signboard, said the official.

Although it is not known when the centre began operations, births had been recorded at the centre since August. An ambulance and a doctor were on standby during the raid.

A patient was later brought out of the building and transferred to a hospital, said the official.

The chief executive of the centre claimed that they were not supposed to carry out child deliveries but they had done so in emergency cases, adding that he gave the green light for the clinic’s doctor to perform a delivery on Tuesday because the patient was close to delivering.

He claimed that they had applied for a maternity hospital licence in June and did not meet the Health Ministry’s requirement but it had allowed the centre to provide out­patient treatment until they were able to meet the requirements.

He added that the clinic had conducted “a handful” of emergency del­i­­­­very cases.

On complaints that the centre did not have relevant specialists, he said they had an obstetrician and gynaecologist on call but would soon have a permanent specialist and a paediatrician once a permit was given.

He denied that the centre carried out abortions.

Deputy health director-general Datuk Dr S. Jeyaindran said investigations were still ongoing.

Flood prediction tools sought

BY LOH FOON FONG

PETALING JAYA: The Drainage and Irrigation Department (DID) will further improve its existing flood forecasting and early warning system to better manage future episodes of heavy rain.

Its Water Resources and Hydrology division director Datuk Hanapi Mohamad Noor said the department hopes to collaborate with the Malaysian Meteorological Depart­ment (MMD) and get experts to develop tools with high resolution software as well as train staff to quantify rainfall based on radar data.

Hanapi said the proposed project would develop software and a forecasting model using real time radar images of rain clouds accumulated in 24 hours in order to arrive at the total one-day rainfall forecast.

“From the data, we can forecast one to two days ahead the water level at the downstream of bigger catchment areas such as for Sg Johor, Sg Pahang, Sg Kelantan and Sg Sarawak,” he said in an interview.

For smaller catchment areas such as Sg Kelang and Sg Damansara, flooding could be forecast a few hours ahead, he added.

Hanapi was asked if the DID could have predicted the severe floods that hit Terengganu, Pahang, Kelantan, Johor, Sabah and Sarawak last month, which resulted in nearly 90,000 people needing evacuation besides millions of ringgit in damage.

Hanapi said the DID currently did not have the expertise for detailed forecasts, while MMD could forecast rain only in general terms, such as under its current colour coded (yellow, orange or red) weather warning system, but could not quantify the amount of rainfall before it rains.

The present forecasting system was based on input from the DID’s telemetry stations that measure water levels, but this gives little time for warning and evacuation.

Hanapi said the DID would be asking for an allocation amounting to RM2mil from the Government for the project.

Hanapi said that on Dec 3, Kemaman in Terengganu received 777mm of rainfall, and Kuantan in Pahang 541mm, both the highest rainfall ever recorded in those towns since the 1970s.

At the Jabur station of Kemaman, the highest amount of daily rainfall before this was 607mm, which occurred on Feb 13, 2001.

For Kuantan, the highest amount of rain per day before this was 256mm, which occurred on Dec 11, 2004.

“This is extraordinary,” said Hanapi, who added that flood mitigation projects such as the construction of bunds for Sg Kisap, Kuantan, completed in 2010, was meant to cater for rainfall intensity of 380mm per day.

Hanapi acknowledged that the DID and other relevant authorities also needed to improve on the dissemination of flood warnings.

He believed that many could have missed the warnings as they might not have access to the Internet, television or short message services.

In Kuantan, for instance, electricity was cut off for a few days after dozens of Tenaga Nasional’s substations there were inundated. In total, more than 1,000 substations nationwide were damaged by flooding last December.

Tony Pua: Investigation of Father Lawrence smacks of double standards

BY LOH FOON FONG

PETALING JAYA: The police investigation on Father Lawrence Andrew for alleged sedition smacks of double standards, claimed Petaling Jaya Utara MP and DAP national publicity secretary, Tony Pua.

Pua said that others had uttered far more seditious and dangerous statements but no action had been taken against them.

He pointed out Perkasa leaders such as Zulkifli Nordin, who made fun of Hindu deities and questioned the purity of the Ganges River, as well as Datuk Ibrahim Ali who incited people to burn the Bible.

On Jan 3, Perak Mufti Tan Sri Harussani Zakaria was reported to have called for a fatwa (edict) to declare that is halal (permissible) to shed the blood of participants of an anti-price hike rally popularly called Turun that was held on Dec 31.

He had labelled the participants bughah (a term used to describe Muslims who fought or betrayed the country’s leaders), and said that it was haram (forbidden) to participate in the rally.

“Who will take responsibility if any of the protestors were killed as a result of the mufti’s irresponsible edict?” said Pua in a statement Wednesday.

Pua said despite the outrageous statement, not a single finger has been lifted to chastise, much less investigate Harussani.

"On the other hand, Father Lawrence was merely asserting the fact that the world has been used in the Malay Bibles for more than a hundred years here without controversy or restrictions.

“He was certainly not calling for bloodshed or inciting violence,” said Pua.

Meanwhile, Bernama reported Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has asked Catholic priestFather Lawrence Andrew to respect the court's decision on the use of the word, 'Allah' in the Malay version of the Bible.

The former Prime Minister said Father Lawrence should respect the sensitivities of the Muslim community in the country, just as Muslims respected other religions.

"The case was referred to the court by them, but when the court made its decision, they did not bother. What will happen when society does not respect the court's decision?

"The usage of the word, 'Allah', in Sabah and Sarawak has been for a long while, never mind, lah, but why all of a sudden (they) want to use it here?," asked Dr Mahathir.