Mohd Hafiz Mohd Amirol, who deals with disaster risk reduction efforts in disaster-prone areas, said there were still gaps in certain areas of development procedures that were related to natural hazards and disasters.

“The requirements are not able to cope with the changing climate. In general, our development policy and regulations are less risk-informed or do not incorporate disaster-risk reduction elements.”

Hafiz, an architect by training, is head of strategic planning at the Mercy Malaysia organisation.

As an example of outdated rules, he pointed to monsoon drains, which he said were designed in colonial days with capacity for extremely heavy rain which would occur only once every few decades in those times.

“Now it occurs almost every year. So engineering aspects are changing and the climate is changing.”

Parts of Kelantan and Terengganu are currently experiencing flooding from the annual northeast monsoon. In December 2014, more than 24,000 people in Kelantan and 21,000 people in Terengganu were forced to flee their homes.

Hafiz said that natural disasters were occurring more frequently now because of the increase in high-density developments triggered by urbanisation, and the movement of people focused in city centres.

These factors created stress on the environment and natural resources such as water and land. “When we have more people concentrated in one area, the bearing capacity for that area changes. The demand for natural resources changes and that contributes to it (higher frequency of natural disasters) as well.”

The planet is also oversaturated, he said. “The world has reached it’s maximum saturation. We need to look into innovative ways of living.”

On high-density developments, he said Penang was a good example. He believed more development could still take place if the projects were carried out innovatively. “Maybe the decision of land-use planning needs to be more risk-informed – there are obvious areas that shouldn’t be touched at all.”

He added that the community in disaster-prone areas in Malaysia are presently not empowered with enough knowledge of emergency steps that need to be taken when a flood or disaster hits, compared to communities in Jakarta or the Philippines who were more aware of what to do.

“It is lacking because Malaysia is not so much of a disaster prone area and we don’t take that as seriously.”

He added that, apart from disaster-response services, Mercy also conducts training with the community to teach them how to respond and be prepared for natural disasters.

“Not only to take care of cleanliness or to clean their drains, but to take responsibility of their own community.”