Floods a wake-up call for region
Governments and private sectors across the region need to wake up to the fact that economic development and environmental protection are not irreconcilable, but indeed go hand-in-hand.
Of course, we can’t ignore the over-logged hillsides or the rubbish-packed rivers either. Indeed, the rain has now become a harbinger of death and destruction – even in Singapore where flash-floods have roiled Orchard Road periodically to the embarrassment of local authorities.
By Karim Raslan, The Star
IN Shahnon Ahmad’s novel, Ranjau Sepanjang Jalan, a doomed family of poor rice-farmers waits patiently for the rains – rains that never come. It’s a struggle that farming communities anywhere would be familiar with.
For centuries, Southeast Asians have viewed the annual monsoons as a revitalising force.
Indeed, the control of water through irrigation canals and dams has also been a key aspect of power in the region’s great lowland, rice-plains.
The Chao Phraya, Brantas and Mekong rivers have hosted great kingdoms based to a large extent on the access to water.
However, over the past few decades as agricultural land has been concreted over with housing developments, roads and industrial parks, the water has had nowhere to flow.
It’s arguable that we’ve become disrespectful of Nature’s needs as we re-shaped the landscape to our ends regardless of the consequences.
At the same time, (and courtesy of global warming) nature has become more erratic and extreme.
The rains are either overwhelming or absent, making it harder and harder to anticipate their possible impact.
We no longer have the certainty that our ancestors did when it comes to the seasons.
The deluge in Thailand is hence a wake-up call for Southeast Asia. Coming so soon after similar floods and natural disasters in the Philippines and Indonesia (especially Java), it underlines the vulnerability of these densely-populated, low-lying littoral (or coastal) areas.
Of course, we can’t ignore the over-logged hillsides or the rubbish-packed rivers either. Indeed, the rain has now become a harbinger of death and destruction – even in Singapore where flash-floods have roiled Orchard Road periodically to the embarrassment of local authorities.
As we adjust to these stunning reversals, we have to ask if Asean policymakers have got things wrong?
For many years, governments in the region have presented the economy and environment as exclusives, you can only have one or the other.
We have railed against the hypocrisy of the West which lectured developing nations about sustainability while they continued to pollute.
To be honest, I was initially one of the sceptics. The whole “green” thing seemed wishy-washy; either a way for guilty middle-class liberals to assuage their conscience or worse yet, a not-too-subtle way for certain developed nations and their corporations to effectively kill off competition.
The need for economic development and poverty alleviation seemed so much more pressing. Nevertheless, the damage that Mother Nature has wrought has forced me to reconsider my views.
Indeed, a similar process is taking place across the region. The Thais have been debating the cause of the current tragedy.
Was it the insistence of storing water in the up-country dams despite unexpectedly heavy rains? Was it rampant over-building in the lowlands or deforestation? A failure to anticipate a sudden change in rainfall patterns?
Whatever the cause, it’s undeniable that scale of human activity that is taking place in Southeast Asia, and indeed Asia generally has made dealing with natural disasters all the more difficult.
When all is said and done, poor environmental management is economically destructive.
Damage from Thailand’s floods could amount to 500bil baht (RM49bil), and its GDP growth this year could be slashed by over 3%.
At the same time, environmental issues can heighten political risk.
The Thai floods have exacerbated the still raw wounds of a deeply-divided society.
Floods, landslides, terrible pollution and even droughts have made ordinary people increasingly wary about development.
This in turn is strengthening the nascent “green movement” as people seek reasons behind the terrible occurrences, even in the still-authoritarian People’s Republic of China.
For instance, a 12,000-strong demonstration in Dalian last August forced the closure of an unpopular chemical plant in the heavily-industrialised, normally investor-friendly city.
The political implications of such environmental protests cannot be exaggerated. Indeed, environmental disasters often suggest a failure on the part of governments to manage the resources under their stewardship.
Similarly, corporates are finding that their activities are coming under increased scrutiny and the anger on the ground is no less palpable towards them.
Basic regulatory compliance and corporate social responsibility initiatives may no longer be enough: people don’t want their neighbourhoods destroyed in the blind pursuit of profit.
The days of apathy towards green issues are clearly over in the East.
As the Philippines academic turned activist-politician Walden Bello wrote in 2007, it’s wrong to assume “…that the Asian masses are inert elements that uncritically accept the environmentally damaging high-growth export-oriented industrialisation models promoted by their governing elites.
“It is increasingly clear to ordinary people throughout Asia that the model has wrecked agriculture, widened income inequalities, led to increased poverty after the Asian financial crises and wreaked environmental damage everywhere”.
Governments and private sectors across the region need to wake up to the fact that economic development and environmental protection are not irreconcilable, but indeed go hand-in-hand.
We shouldn’t wait for disasters like the Thai floods or worse before taking action.
