Governance of flood disaster management: Malaysian case study

Flood is a yearly event in Malaysia but surprisingly there is no law specifically to address it and the related issues. However there are many other laws, rules and regulations that are in force and these can be applied directly and indirectly to address flood issues. The custodian of these laws is not that of one Government department only, but designated to many different departments, each with its own responsibilities and functions. Managing floods therefore requires good inter-agency coordination and cooperation. This is not often easy but the Federal and State administrative culture, traditions and practices have evolved such that there is respect and understanding on the need to approach flood problems in an integrated manner. Flood governance entails the need of a coordinated system in dealing with this natural disaster. A significant lives and properties are lost each year due to increasing magnitude of flood, made worst by extreme climate change. Some of the countries choose decentralized flood governance management including Malaysia. However, it is still unclear whether decentralized or centralized flood management governance is more effective. This review was to compare between countries on governance of flood management. A mini scoping systematic review was done, where five articles with six different country examples were chosen for the review. Four out of six countries opted for decentralized flood governance as being more effective, as it leads to better democracy, local actors have a bigger role to play, more sophisticated technology and better training, privatization of necessities such as water supply helps to ease the central government burden and flood risk maps are built for predictive modelling and preventive action. However, lack of coordination remains an issue in all of the countries that could potentially be tackled using the COBIT framework. Further researches are needed to test the effectiveness of this framework in improving flood governance

A case control study on factors associated with leptospirosis infection among residents in flood-prone area, Kuantan: a geographical information system-based approach

Background: Leptospirosis, nicknamed "The Great Mimicker", is a zoonotic disease of public health importance, particularly in temperate climate such as Malaysia where seasonal floods occur. This study aims to determine factors associated with leptospirosis transmission such as sociodemographic characteristics, knowledge, attitude and environmental risk factors such as temperature, rainfall, humidity, flood-risk area, distance from waste accumulation sites, land elevation and soil type, as well as predictors of leptospirosis transmission among residents in Kuantan, Pahang by using a Geographical Information System (GIS)-based approach. Materials and Methods: A population-based case-control study will be implemented in Kuantan, Pahang which utilizes 260 samples, where 130 confirmed cases of leptospirosis and 130 controls who will be randomly selected from neighbours living within 500 metre radius of the cases. A validated interviewer-guided questionnaire will be used to assess respondent's sociodemographic characteristics, leptospirosis status, knowledge, attitude and practice towards leptospirosis. Secondary data will be obtained from the respective departments. Data Analysis: Descriptive and inferential statistics will be used for data analysis. Knowledge, attitude, practice, and environmental risk factors such temperature, rainfall, humidity mean values, flood risk areas, distance from waste accumulation sites, soil type and land elevation will be mapped by using GIS. Finally, the predictors of leptospirosis will be determined by logistic regression. Expected Outcome: Due to the transmissibility of leptospirosis increases as the result of flooding, it is expected that the cumulative incidence of cases will come from the flood-prone areas in Kuantan. The majority of the cases could come from areas that have high risk of exposure to environmental factors such as high rainfall density, moderate temperature, high humidity, living in flood-risk areas, low land elevation, nearer to the waste accumulation sites, and moist soil type. It is also expected that even though the community might have heard of leptospirosis, the level of KAP might be low due to the increasing national incidence of the infection