Climate change: adaptation and assessment of impact on Malaysian dams
http://ilokabenneth.blogspot.com/2017/12/climate-change-adaptation-and.html
Author: Iloka Benneth Chiemelie
Published: 27th December 2017
0.1 ABSTRACT
Purpose: the purpose of this research is to present an
understanding of the influence of climate change on Malaysian dams and also
assess the approaches adopted by government towards handling these influences
in order to create sustainability.
Design / methodology /
approach: this is a secondary research that is
sourced from primary sources such as the government data base and other
reliable sources. The reason for conducting a secondary research is because
primary studies on the influence of climate change on dams can take numerous
years and also require huge financial backing. On that ground, it was deemed
right to conduct secondary research by sourcing information from numerous
agencies and comparing the information together.
Findings – findings from the study show that climate change has
wielded a number of negative influences on Malaysian dams with the most
significant of such being increase in flooding and drought. Additionally, it
was found that the Malaysian government has been successful in enacting a
number of policies and establishing new agencies that are geared towards
reducing these negative influences of climate change on both dams and other
resources in the country.
Originality / value: the findings from this paper offer an important
implication for understanding the impact of climate change on Malaysian and how
the Malaysian government has been able to handle this issue. The paper is
original in its own form and represents a clear understanding in the context of
the research topic as information were obtained from reliable sources.
Keywords: Climate Change, Dams, Malaysian Government
CHAPTER 1
1.1 Background of study
In
2007, the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) presented a report
on the “Science of Climate Change,” and made known that there have been an
increase in temperature (~ 0.3oC) and rainfall (~ 3.0%) in all the Southeast Asia
Region in the past decade. In any case, there is also a general agreement
amongst scientists that the changes in the behavioural pattern of the el-Nino -
ENSO, monsoons, and some part of the Indian Dipole Oscillation circulation
systems are being caused by the extreme weathers and variability, which has a
subsequent influence on the changing behavioural patterns of the
hydrometeorologicaland geo-morphological events. The implication now becomes
that the focus change is primarily centred on some of the major river basins in
the region, irrespective of the intensities of flood and drought, haze
pollutions, slope failures and the rise of new diseases (Robert, 2011). Also in the report are the factors that
caused the South Indian Ocean cyclones and the Pacific – South China Sea
Regions’ typhoons has also contributed to changes that have been triggered by
the warning ocean surface waters as a result of global warming.
Presenting,
Malaysia as a country has been to absorb the impact of the climate change as a
result of its strong environmental management programmers, that are supported
by a very strict economic policies that include effective poverty eradication
and programs designed to enhance food production (Robert, 2011). In any case,
there is the need to understand that these efforts are meant to address only
“the threats of environmental change,” and not designed specifically for
addressing the “threats of climate change”, where it has been acknowledge that
the impact scenario on Malaysia will generally have a divergent scene in the
long term; which will mean that the impact will exceed the environmental
thresholds where the affected habitants and ecosystem will not generally have
the power to recover back to its normal equilibrium and stable conditions.
Still on that same note, climate change has the power of triggering both
national and international distributional conflicts such as in the cases of
fisheries, and intensifying problems that are already very hard to manage in
the region. Based on the above discussions, Robert (2011) made known that a
number of concerns exist in the areas of:
1. Climate-triggered
degradation of forests, marines and freshwater resources;
2. Climate-triggered
increase in some hydro-meteorological and geomorphological events;
3. Climate-triggered
decline in the food production capacities and other economic systems that are
environmentally driven; and
4. Issues
with climate change and ethical justice like induced displacement and migration
of the environment, the deprivation and sustenance of certain livelihood
activities, and the negative influence on safety and wellbeing of the more
marginalized sectors of the society.
Since
the 1990s and onward, Malaysia has been able to engage in a broader scope with
the “climate change community”; laying down their own contributions with
respect to steep Green House Gas (GHG) reduction, but has focused its attention
and resources to a far lesser extent on climate change adaptation needs. Robert
(2011) noted that since 2009 to present, climate change has been brought back
to the main focus with it’s developed of Second National Communication (NC2) as
part of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). As
a support to this drive forwards is a small but focused way in the REGIONAL
CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION KNOWLEDGE PLATFORM FOR ASIA that is famously known as
Adaptation Knowledge Platform (AKP).
1.2 Purpose of research
On
the ground of the above discussions, this research aims to contribute
significantly towards understanding the influence of climate change on
Malaysian s country with special reference on how the influence has been on
dams in the country, and the second is to understand how the country has been
able to adapt to such influence. On that note, the success of this research
will be measured with respect to the extent it has been able to achieve the set
research objectives. Thus, the research objectives can be summarized as:
1. To
gain an understanding on what climate change is all about.
2. To
gain an understanding on how the changes in climate has impacted Malaysian
dams.
3. To
assess and analyse the measures adopted by the Malaysian
government towards mitigating or reducing these negative impacts on its dams.
4. To
recommend on necessary measures that can be used to enhanced the measures
already adopted by the Malaysian government.
1.3 Research question
In
order to achieve the set objective of this research as reflected in the above
discussion, a number of questions will be asked as the guideline and point of
measure for the overall research outcome and these questions are:
1. What
is global warming?
2. What
are the causes of global warming?
3. How
have global warming affected Malaysian dams
4. How
the Malaysia adapting to this effects
These
questions now define the concepts that will be evaluated in order to call the
research a success. The implication now because that the success of the
research will depend generally on the extent the above questions have been
answered.
1.4 Significance of
research
In
terms of understanding why the research is important, it has been noted earlier
that the issue of climate change is laying a number of negative influence on
the environment, and it makes it very important to understand the causes of
climate change and the way that it can be potentially reduced. Such an
understanding will without doubt influence sustainability in the system
positively. This is because when the causes of climate change is highlighted,
then the government will be better positioned to define the right approach for
combating such changes and the outcome of the whole process will be an increase
in the adoption of a system that is free of negative influences of the climate
changes. Additionally, the dams are normally rich in aquatic lives that are
used to sustain the livelihood of people in the system as well as
sustainability of the aquatic lives for the future generation to have access to
it.
1.5 Limitation
Although
this research can be considered highly significant with respect to the benefits
that it will yield on the field of study, it is also important to understand
that there are limitations to the research. Basically, there is no given
research that doesn’t have any limitation and this is based on the
understanding that a number of factors influence the research process either
negatively or positively. In terms of the negative influence, the outcome then
becomes as hindrance to the success of the research. On that ground, it should
not be a surprise that this research also has its own limitations.
The
limitation of this research comes in the form of the research scope. While the
focus is to gain an understanding of the effects of the climate change on
Malaysian dams and assess the adaptation to these effects with respect to Malaysia,
the paper ignores the importance of measuring the pros and cons of these
effects and adaptation strategy. The fact is that managing the effect of
climate change will come at certain incurred costs. As such, it is important to
understand the different methods for managing climate change and the cost of
each method as measured against how effective the method is. Such an
understanding will be used to determine whether the Malaysian government is
making use of the right method. In any case, the paper is limited in this
aspect because it doesn’t look into understanding these different methods and
the applicable cost for each of them.
1.6 Research
organization
Figure
1.1: research organization
Still
in line with the desire to define the right approaches that will ensure an
effective research outcome, this research is organized in line with the steps
contained in similar studies. Basically, the steps are divided into five
sections. The first section is the introduction. In this section, the overall
research objective is stated with the research questions that will b addressed
in the course of meeting the stated research objectives.
The
second section looks into understanding the relevant theories and literature
in relationship to the research topic. This section will cover areas such as
understanding the meaning of climate change and the factors that result in
climate change, and also understanding the concept of sustainability as it
related to managing the negative influence of climate change.
The
thirds section is the methodology and it is used to design how the measurement
of the impact will be access as well as understanding the adaptation techniques
employed by the government.
The
fourth section is the main paper, which presents a detailed review of the
impact of climate change on Malaysian dams and assessment of the approaches
adopted by the government to mitigate this impact. The overall findings are
then summarized in the fifth section.
CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.0 Introduction
Following
the success of the previous chapter, the focus of this chapter is to gain an
understanding of the research topic by looking into the theoretical background
that surrounds the research topic. On that account, the focus will be to review
a number of theories based on past researches as it relates to the research
topic and context of discussion.
2.1 Theoretical
framework
Figure
2.1: theoretical framework for the research
Basically,
the above figure shows that the literature review will be based on
understanding what dams are all about, how they are constructed and usages of
dams. Following this will be discussions on how climate change has impacted on
dams in Malaysian. The concluding stage of the literature review will be an
assessment of the efforts made by the government towards reducing the negative
impact of climate change on dams in Malaysia.
2.2 Dams: what are the
benefits and costs?
Over
the centuries, there is no doubting the fact that dams have played integral
role in development. This is because it has yielded a number of socio-economic
benefits in the form of power generation, irrigation, water supply, and
improved navigation, control of floods, fisheries and recreation. On that
ground, it can be seem that dams have been a source for facilitating the
economic development and creation of job within any given economy in the world.
Basically, these are the main reasons behind the building of dams over the
years in countries across the world.
In
any case, it is important to understand that dams cost a lot of capital to be
completed and in most cases; the cost can be very significant in relation to
the GDP of the countries that are promoting the construction of dams as a
source of economic development (WWF, 2009). Once
the dam has been completed, there are tendencies that the da will last for a
very long time, and most of them have been found to last over hundreds of years
with perfection functionalities (WWF, 2009). On
that ground, it is important to understand that mistakes can very disastrous.
There
are a number of evidence that exist in relation to the financial, social and
environmental costs of dams that have been underestimated in many cases, with
the benefits being generally exaggerated and as such risking any investment in
dams (WWF, 2009). The main reason for such is
because they serve a relatively smaller earlier than thought; maybe because the
crops are sold lower than thought; or other factors in terms of geographical
and climate instability, which is the main focus of this paper.
A
recent study that was conducted through a World Bank funded hydropower project
showed that on the average, the scheduled slippage of dams is at 28% (Gleick, 1993). Even when the dams have been
successfully completed following desired outcomes and set guidelines, issues
can also arise from the maintenance cost that can normally be higher than
expected – with special reference to aging dams -, and the financial and economic
analyses of dams normally seem to overlook the decommissioning costs associated
with owning and running dams.
2.3 Malaysia’s
vulnerabilities and attitude towards climate change
The
extreme nature, variability and anomalies of the climate always seem a big
threat to the base of the any country’s populace, livelihoods and its major
economic system. In terms of measuring the level of vulnerabilities amongst the
populace, it was made known by Robert (2011)
that the most vulnerable of the populace is the poor; those that live at the
threshold of poverty line, but the safety and wellbeing of the populace is
something that concerns both the rich and the poor. The systems that are
traditionally low in income such agriculture and fisheries, as the most vulnerable
in terms of their practices and benefits that are derived from the practice,
which are dedicated and sustained by the behavioural patter of the weather and
climate. Changes with respect to these behavioural pattern such as increase the
distribution of rain fall, without applying any adaptive measures will lead to
potentially adverse effect on the populate, sector, and the country as a whole.
On
that ground, the understanding in terms of the Malaysian setting will be built
from the country’s first National Communication to the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), as well as its second communication, in
which it was known in a vulnerability studies that was based on narrowed
pattern from the parameters of investigation and concern, for instance a temperature
variation of +0.03 - +3.4Co (MoSTE, 2000) to a
focus of 1.0 – 2.0Co (NRE, 2011). In any case,
this has not changed the form of climate change vulnerability that is facing
the county. The main concern is the rising sea level, with particular reference
to Peninsular Malaysia – the areas located around TnajungPiai and
PantaiChenang. Robert (2011) noted that equating the rise in sea level with the
inundation of salt water into the fresh water sources for agricultural
productions, to the portable water availability amount the coast communities
will result in a condition that is not favourable for such purpose in terms of
the rural livelihood, water and sanitation problems that are important for
maintaining an acceptable level of health and nutrition in these communities.
Still on that same account, Robert (2011) also
noted that equating the sea level changes to the salinity of the coastal
waters; marine and aquatic life, will led to a decline in the aquaculture
productivity – especially in those parts of the decline that the adaptation
measures are defenceless against.
Another
area that was measured is the increase in average temperature as a result of
the changes in global climate that is also a major concern for Malaysia, but it
has a mixed bag in terms of the impact on the national economy – that comes in
the form of either detrimental or beneficial depending on activities in the
section, and the a combination of the impacts from the stimuli that is
accompanied with an increase in temperatures (such as the wind storms and
strength of rainfalls that lead to flooding). The studies that were presented
in the country’s Second National Communication express shows that there is an
average temperatures, which ranges from 1Co to 2Co, and this temperature range
will be good for the production of fruits and oil but not for the production of
cocoa, rubber, and rice (NRE, 2011). In terms of
measuring the rice production, an increase in temperature from the said range
would most likely result in production losses between 4.6% to 6.1% (at +1Co) and
9.6% to 10% (at +2Co). while the production processes in agriculture and
expected yield depend on a number of other factors such as the type of
cultivator, location, and management competence, higher temperatures are
normally accompanies by an increase in storm activity and the intensity of
rainfall; which will usually result in flooding and it is not favourable for
most of the agricultural productions – which includes those discussed above (Siwar, et. al., 2009).
Another
issues noted by Robert (2011) is the regional differences in rainfall which
sees an increase in one area and a decrease in another area as the author noted
that it is a big issue to agricultural production. Good examples are swings in
rainfall that results to differences in flood and drought events. The Second
National Communication reported that there are fluctuations of -5% to +50% for
Peninsular Malaysia; which is by far lesser than what is obtainable in Sabah
and Sarawak that had -6% to +5%.(Robert, 2011).
Considering the fact that the Malaysian water supply is not diversified with
most of them coming from ground water, it becomes clear that fluctuations are
very important on the health sector where it increases the health risk. For
instance, it can lead to vector-borne and food-and-water borne diarrheal
diseases (Husaini, 2007). The striking issue in
this case is that most of these diseases are still endemic in the rural areas
of Malaysia. While the outbreak in recent years are sporadic and have been
linked to poor environmental sanitation and water supply, there is also the
need to understand that an increase in floods and droughts will adversely
increase the outbreak and reduce the effects of efforts made by the Malaysian
government to address the outbreak. The big issue in this case, which calls for
great concern is that the outbreak of vector-borne diseases, and other
water-borne diseases are expected to increase as a result of the general
deterioration of water supply and the expected differences that are caused
either directly or indirectly by rainfall (Commonwealth
Secretariat, 2009). Although the rainfall in Malaysia has been described
as high, differences exist in terms of the time and space, and this affect
river flows that are probe to large differences in rainfall.
There
is also the need to view the vulnerabilities of Malaysia to climate change from
a perspective that is less anthropocentric, that is in terms of the perspective
from an ecosystem functions and endowment of biodiversity. It was previously
stated that this scoping study is more of Malaysia’s understandable ability of
absorbing climate change impacts as a result of its strong environmental
management programmes that are designed to tackle such issues. In any case, Robert (2011) made known that there is the need to
understand that the climate change variations will likely be in excess of the
threshold where the habitats and ecosystem can’t seem to recover to existing
equilibrium and stable conditions. Notwithstanding the lowland and upland
habitats, it is expected that there will be a redistribution of species as a
result of the climate change, with a worst case scenario expected to result in
a significant losses in biodiversity. For instance, the reported showed that the
NC2, within Peninsular Malaysia alone 13.5% of amphibians, 5.8% of birds, and
5.4% are viewed to be highly vulnerable to changes in the ecosystem that is
brought about by changes in climate (NRE, 2011).
As such, the ability of both plants and animals to adapt to the changes in
climate pressures occurs over numerous generations and in some cases hundreds
or even thousands of years. On that ground, it becomes clear that it will be
very difficult to these species to create the necessary ability needed to adapt
to changes in climate over a short period of time and this difference will mean
an increase in their vulnerabilities because they will not be able to change
within the short period of time.
In
the Malaysian context, how climate change impact is viewed and acted upon is more
of a pattern that follows “unknown until known.” A more of a reactive rather
can proactive. The question often asked is what is it that needs to be adapted
to instead of is it amongst the issues we have already created solutions for?
This creates the need for a pre-planned approach that will be used to will be
used to respond to changes in climate change in terms of the reducing the
negative effects of such to the inhabitants. The big issue here is that climate
change and adaptation doesn’t mean the same thing to everyone. This can also be
seen from the difference between the initial and second report presented by
Malaysia to the UNFCCC, in which it can be seen that the second report clearly
shows a detailed progress in the country’s attempt of understanding the need to
climate change adaptations – although the focus was still mostly on
understanding how it can be used to improve economic efficiency and growth.
Probably, this is clear stance maintained by the country in climate change
which can be exemplified in the Ninth Malaysia Plan (2006 – 2010), and it was
also expressed by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and the
Institute for Environment and Development (LESTARI), UniversitiKebangsaan
Malaysia (NRE and LESTARI, 2010):
1. The
need to mainstream measures to address climate change through strengthening
economic competitiveness, proper resource management, environmental
conversation and enhancement of quality of life Is needed for sustainable
development; and
2. Integration
of responses into national policies, plans, and programmes is important for
strengthening the resilience of development from arising and potential impacts
of climate change.
Table
2.1: an overview of Malaysia’s proposed climate change adaptation needs to
address key climate induced events, losses, and threats that have been
expressed in the NC2.
EVENTS
|
PROPOSED
CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION NEEDS
|
Drought
|
1. Efficiency
of water supply will be enhanced. This will include an improvement of the
storage efficiency by removing the sediments present in the reservoirs and
dams and also eliminating losses from leakage and water theft;
2. Promoting
the demand for management practices as a means of reducing the per-capita
consumption of portable water by industrial, commercial and resident customers.
This will include reduction in wastage through behavioural changes and
encouraging the harvesting of water for non-potable uses; and
3. The
promotion of demand management practices that will be used for the purpose of
improving the efficiency of irrigation and other water uses that are
depending on non-potable sources such as does from rainfall and groundwater.
|
Flood & Erosion
|
1. The
review of flood management plans and assessing the level of integrity of the
existing structures with particular reference to times of failures that could
result in losses of lives and property, as well as dams.
2. Review
of the design standards used for flood risk management in all of the
infrastructures that comprises of water control structures, transportation
and electrical structures, amenities for water and waste, as a means of
incorporating climate change factors; and
3. There
is also the need to complement the structural approaches adopted with
non-structural approaches such as the improvement of rainfall and flood
forecasting, disaster warning systems and flood hazard mapping as part of the
coordinated disaster management and prevention plan designed to ensure that
potential dangers on the inhabitants are eliminated as much as possible.
|
LOSSES
|
|
Agriculture
|
In order to prevent
agricultural losses, a number of facilities have been adopted by the
Malaysian government and they include:
1. A
drainage system improvement for the purpose of regulating the water table
depth and preventing floods;
2. Establishment
of sufficient irrigation facilities for regions that are stressed by water;
3. The
establishment of cultivar breeding programmes for the purpose of developing
new varieties that are rich in Water Use Efficiency (WUE) traits and capable
of tolerating droughts; and
4. The
enhancement of Low Intensity Tapping System (LITS) for the purpose of
utilization in rubber sectors in order to regulate the temperature and make
it tolerable with the main objective of increasing rubber cultivation in the
country.
|
THREATS
|
|
Health
|
1. Strengthening
the surveillance programmes that are designed for the purpose of detecting
water-borne and vector-borne diseases such as rual entomologists on the
district level; and
2. Involvement
of communities in defence strategies such as environmental management.
|
Forest and
biodiversity
|
1. Conversation
and protection corridors have been established between forests; and
2. Ensuring
that the protection of genetic resources is made possible through the
establishment of gene banks, animal sanctuaries, botanic gardens, captive
breeding centres and rehabilitation centres for the fauna.
|
Coastal and marine
habitat
|
1. Retreat
approach – this will involve abandoning lands and structures in vulnerable
areas and the resettlement of inhabitants; preventing developments in areas
that are near to the coastal areas by imposing more strict laws, acquisition
of lands, the use of land for restriction and prohibiting the reconstruction
of areas that are damaged by storms; as well as taking the necessary measures
allow wetlands to migrate to inland.
2. Accommodation
approach – continuing to occupy and use vulnerable areas
|
Source
as adapted from: Robert (2011)
2.4 Introduction to
hydropower
Ir. ZainalAbidin bin Othman (2005), the Managing
Director of SMEC (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd published an article on the future of
hydropower in Malaysia and the article detailed an analysis of what hydropower
is all about, how it is designed and the influence of hydropower on economic
development in the country. From the study, Zainal
(2005) made known that hydropower is the only renewable energy
technology and it is also commercially viable at a very large scale in the
modern age. It has four main advantages as being renewable, producing a very
negligible amount of greenhouse gasses, least costly when compared with other
technologies used in storing electricity, and it can also be adjusted to meet
the demanded amount of electricity. Hydropower accounts for about 17% of the
global energy generation and about 20% of the energy produced each year (1).
In
the USA, hydropower produces about 10% of the total electric energy in the
country, with Norway making use of hydropower to produce more than 99% of its
electricity and New Zealand producing about 75% of its electricity through the
same means of hydropower (Whittington and Gundry, 1998).
From the Malaysian view point only 11% of the electricity is produced through
electricity (Barber and Ryder, 1993) and this is
very significant when considering the tremendous amount of energy used per
annum in the country.
Zainal (2005) also made known that
hydropower energy is used throughout the world in varying sized with some of
the being in small (mini-hydro) and other coming in the form of mammoth schemes
that serve numerous countries or regions. From the understanding presented, it
was also gathered that the industrialized countries have utilized the potential
of hydro energy to a considerable extent. However, it should be understood that
in some of the developing countries, with particular reference to the equatorial
and tropical belts, the use of hydropower is only considered to be an option
with the considerate potential for meeting the energy needs (Zainal, 2005).
Figure 2.1: 400MW
Kenyir Hydropower Station in Terengganu
Source
as adapted from: Zainal (2005)
In
terms of understanding how hydropower is generated, it has been gained that
most of the conventional hydropower will comprise of four major components are:
1. Dam
– this involves raising the water level of the river to create falling water.
The dam is also used to control the flow of water and the reservoir created is
used for the purpose of storing energy.
2. Turbine –
the force of the failing water created with the dam is pushed against the
turbine blades and it forces the turbine to spin. The water turbine is more
like a windmill, but it has the difference of energy being provided by the
falling water and not the wind. The turbine is used to convert the kinetic
energy from the falling water into mechanical energy.
3. Generator –
the generator is connected to the turbine by a shaft and in some cases by
gears, causing the generator to spin as well with the turbine spinning. This is
used to convert the mechanical energy from the turbine into electrical energy.
The working of generator in the hydropower plants is the same format with that
of generators in other plants.
4. Transmission lines
– this is used to conduct and transfer electricity from the hydropower plant to
houses and businesses.
Good
examples of hydropower plants in Malaysia are: the Kenyir Sultan Mahmud Power
Station with 400MW installed capacity, the Pergau Hydroelectric Power Station
with 600MW installed capacity and the Temenggor Hydroelectric Power Plant with
348MW installed capacity.
2.5 An overview of
hydropower development in Malaysia
A
brief overview of the hydropower development in Malaysia will start with the
development of the first major dam, the Chenderoh dam, which was constructed in
1939. This construction is accompanies by a long gap before the second
construction was recommended following the Second World War, which is the
Sultan Abu Bakar Dam (Cameron Highlands) in 1963 (Zainal, 2005).
There
is also an experienced temporal hull in the dam construction between the
periods of late 60s to the early 70s as a result of the oil price that was
still very competitively price at that time, offering thermal alternatives for
the generation of power.
In
the mid-70s, the increasing price of oil meant that a shift of attention was
experienced back to hydropower in the overall development plan for energy. This
shift led to an eventual construction of four additional dams between the
periods of 1974 and 1984. These dams include Temengor (1974), Bersia (1980), Kenering
(1980) and Kenyir (1980) (Zainal, 2005).
Two
additional dams were also developed in the 90s, which are namely Sg. Piah(1993)
and Pergau (1991). The Bakun hydro in Sarawak is the only hydropower dam that
was constructed in the country in the 20s up till this moment.
Figure
2.2: Kuala Yong Dam in Pergau, Kelantan
Source
as adapted from: Zainal (2005)
Malaysia
is a country with a land mass of 332,000 km2 with its main elevation
being about 300m. On average, rainfall in the country is just about 2,600mm per
annum with the total potential for hydro power being 414,000 GWh/year, of which
about 85,000 GWh/year are made available in the Malaysian peninsular. Although
the peninsular has about 39% of the total land area, it is only able to
generate about 20% or slightly above that figure in terms of hydropower (Th’ng, Y. H., 1986).
From
a geographical view, the Malaysian peninsular is relatively narrow with its
main range comprising of low mountains, the Titiwangsa Range running across the
interior to form the main watershed. As such, the river basin formed from the
overall process is moderately small. The largest river basin in this area is
the Sg. Pahang with a drainage area of 28,500 km2 (Zainal, 2005). Additionally, the rainfall and
topographic features are less favourable when compared with what is obtainable
in Sabah and Sarawak. These factors play the major influence on the limited
hydropower resources that are obtainable in this region.
Zainal (2005) also made known that
out of the the 85,000 GWh/year gross potential, the fully utilized resources
are 4,900 GWh/year (6%) but another 5,000 GWh/year (6%) has been identified. In
terms of measuring the power generation and utilization, the Sg. Perak river
basin is the most developed as noted by the author and it produces 2,500 GWh/year,
which reaches the limit of hydropower generation and development potentials.
Basically,
the understanding presented in the above analysis is that hydropower is very
important in the Malaysian system and this is based on the understanding that
it a cheaper source of electricity than adopting other sources like fuel. This
is because the increasing price of fuel will have an effect on the operation
cost. However, dams in Malaysia are increasingly being stressed by the increase
in climate change. This effect is very significant because of the fact that the
sloppy nature of the Malaysian geographical settings doesn’t allow for dams to
be easily constructed.
2.6 Impact of climate
change on hydropower and energy sector: dam based review
Harrison et al. (2008) made known that
climate change have the power of influencing changes in the quantity and timing
of river runoff, with an increase in the evaporation of reservoir. These
effects will influence the production of hydroelectric power as a result of
change in the flow pattern of the reservoir. These impacts also include those
experienced upon system operations, financial effects and other sectors of the
energy industry. They are as discussed below.
2.6.1 System operations
and development
The
experienced changed in the availability of exiting hydroelectric plant and the
system constraints will have effects on the ability of the electricity supply
system when the demand for such is at average or peak level. As the demand
continue to increase, the system planning may have to address any predicted
shortfall in the hydropower output by constructing an additional generating
plant (Whittington and Gundry, 1998). This also
increases the likelihood of fossils fuels being used and it will increase the
radioactive forces (Reibsame et al., 2005). It
can also result in some of the planned project being cancelled or adapted.
Basically, the understanding here is that the change in climate will influence
the flow pattern of the hydroelectric dams and it will influence power generation
either positively or negatively. In cases where the influence is negative, the
government or companies are forced to create new dams or to adopt other sources
of electricity that can harm the environment as a result of its radioactive
properties.
2.6.2 Financial effects
Considering
the fact that earlier discussions stated that if the influence of climate
change is negative on the hydropower dams, there will be the need for new dams
or other sources of energy to be created. Since that is the case, it is easily
understandable that there will be some financial constructs needed to make such
possible. On that ground, financial expenditure is something that is very much
common in hydroelectric stations and the operations costs are normally low but
the capital cost are very high (Harrison et al., 2008).
On a general ground, the revenue generated from the sales of electricity is the
only way of servicing the capital debt. On that ground, the reduction of the
sales of electricity will have an effect on the investment returns and as such
influence the viability of the plant (Reibsame et al.,
2005). Thus, the loss of hydroelectric generation capabilities will also
require the plant to be constructed to meet demands or to be maintained in
order to increase efficiency. This will also require huge financial investment
on that ground as well.
There
is also the need to consider the fact most of the hydroelectric generators are
constructed with the objecting of increasing the financial performance of any
given economy. This is because the electricity will be used to power the plants
and production systems in the economy, as such increasing production
sustainability and economic growth. When there are issues with the hydropower
dam, the economy will not be sustainable because the dam will not be able to
meet the demands in energy supply. As such, the management of dams are also
very effective ways of sustaining the economic growth of any given nation
because it provides the needed electricity for powering the industries in the
economy (Harrison, 2008).
2.6.3 Effects on other
energy sectors
Besides
the hydropower sector, climate changes also have impact on other energy
sectors. The increase in air temperature tends to cause the lowering of winter
heating demand and an increase in summer cooling demand. On that ground,
thermal generating stations that operate with rivers for the cooling of water
may suffer operational constraints as a result of reduction in the flow of
river [Reibsame et al., 2005; Arnell, 1996; Gleick,
1993]. The water a river or will have on sea is, it the higher the
influence on the efficiency of steam cycles, and this will result in loss of
output or a subsequent increase in the consumption of fuel. A predicted rise in
the sea level can also result to an extreme weather patterns which will cause
an increase in the system damage cost. Change in climate can also affect other
renewable technologies; wind patterns can also cause changes as a result of the
changes in the temperature gradients, and changes in the cloud cover with all
these changes having the potential to affect the performance of solar panels (IPCC, 1990).
From
the above discussions, it can be seen that climate changes have a high
influence on the power supply system of any given economy. Be it the hydropower
or solar power, the changes in climate can influence the performance of the
system and result in decrease in the performance of energy supply. The
subsequent influence of all these will be reduction in the power generation in
the country and also reduction in the production or an increase in the
operation cost as companies will sources other processes to power their
production process.
2.7 Definition of
Sustainable Development: A New Paradigm
During
the 1987 World Commission on Environment and Development, participants sort for
new ways to tackle the problem of misrepresentation between environment and
development goals by defining sustainable development (Jonathan,
2000). The definition they formulated is that sustainable development is
such which meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the
ability of future generations to meet their own needs in anyway.
In
the case of the construction industry, this implies that sustainability is such
an approach whereby the activities taking places in today’s construction
industry doesn’t endanger the ability of the future generation to meet their
own construction needs. Thus, the construction of residential buildings in
Malaysia should be done with the best of materials to minimize or eliminate the
impacts of such activities on the future generation’s ability to meet their own
needs. In the extensive discussion has resulted in the development of
sustainability models in different sectors of the economy as discussed below.
2.7.1 Environment
sustainability
An
environmentally sustainable system is such which is capable of maintaining a
stable resource, limiting over-usage of renewable resources in the system and
depleting non-renewable resources to some extent that there are adequate investment
made in producing substitutes (Jonathan, 2000).
Environmental sustainability also includes the maintenance of biodiversity,
stability of the atmosphere, and the functioning of other systems in the
ecosystem. Basically, this is the main concern of this paper as it is designed
to understand how climate change as a natural factor has influence dams in
Malaysia.
2.7.2 Social
sustainability
Social
sustainability is the maintenance of equity in distribution of resources,
provision of adequate provision of social amenities, gender equality, and
accountability in political participation (Jonathan,
2000).
2.7.3 Economic
sustainability
Economic
sustainability is such in which the economic system is able to produces goods
and services continuously in order to maintain manageable levels of government
and the country’s external debts in the bid to avoid harsh imbalances in
different sectors of the country which might damage the agricultural or
industrial production (Jonathan, 2000).
2.8 History of
Sustainable Development
Beim and Emeriti (2007) made a presentation
of the historical aspect of sustainable development. It term presentation, it
was noted that the word sustainable development sounds something like
technocratic. However, the authors stated that sustainable development is more
like the brainchild of some international commission. It is a formula used to
illustrate a compromising situation in which common terms was later achieved
after a long hours of negotiation. This has made some critics to conclude that
it is just a term and highly impossible to be achieved in the real world sense.
However, the authors believe that if we come to understand the concept of
sustainable development, we will then see that it is somewhat a concept of high
importance
The
two authors stated that sustainable development entered the global stage as
concept in the 1992 “Earth Summit” in Rio de Janeiro. In the summit, the UN
made a presentation of their strategic approach to shape and save the future of
earth. The concept helps to draft the word for maintaining balance between the
use and preservation of natural resources. The Brundtland Commission, which
made the Rio summit possible, did define sustainable development in 1987 as “a
development that is capable of meeting the needs of the present generation
without compromising the ability of the future generation to meet their own
needs.
The
formation of this concept dates back to 1980, when the International Union for
the Conservation of Nature, together with other NGO and government agencies
made a publication of their “World Conservation Strategy.” In collaboration
with the United Nation, this publication was made available to 34 nations
across the globe with the title: “Living resources conservation for sustainable
development” (Beim and Emeriti, 2007).
Few
years before the publication, the terms “sustainable” was also the focal point
of another international organization’s document in 1974. At a world conference
in Bucharest on ‘Science and Technology for Human Development’, the ecumenical
‘World Council of Churches’ (WCC) debated on a new paradigm for socio-ethical
principles. In the debate, the organization adopted the term “husbanding” to
argue that there is a great need for husbanding of resources in the future and
a reduction of expectations of global economic growth. In conclusion, the
organization demanded the transition into a new global society that is based on
sustainability for the future generation.
The
Club of Rome is accorded the appraisal for introducing the word “sustainable”
into the political scene. In March 1972, this global association published a
mind blowing report on the limitations to growth as which was written by the
global of scientists led by Dennis and Donella Meadows of the ‘Massachusetts
Institute of Technology’ (MIT) to describe the desire for creating “ a global
state of equilibrium,” and the authors made use of the word “sustainable.”
Thus, it can be seen that sustainable development as a concept has been there
in the world for a very long period of time.
2.9 Important Of
Sustainable Development
The
importance of sustainable development can easily be pin-pointed from the
definition. In relation to that, the definition is that sustainable development
involves meet the needs of today and having enough resources to meet the needs
of tomorrow. In such an economic view point, it can be seen that sustainable
development tries to maintain balance between survivability of the people of today
and the people of the future (Beim and Emeriti, 2007).
Thus,
it can be stated that sustainable development is important because it enhances
the quality of life of present generation and the generations to come. It
reduces the possible effects of unavailability of resources by making sure that
enough is consumed today as well as saved for the future. Sustainable
development if important because it creates a balance between what is gained
and loss and as such makes sure that enough is always available irrespective of
the time, geographical location and the number of people available in this
area. Therefore, sustainable development establishes a link for the
survivability of the human race by inducing equality in all aspects of humanity
and the society in which they live.
2.10 Importance of
sustainability of dams
Throughout
the course of the discussions as contained in this paper, a number of factors
have been highlighted as playing significant influence on the sustainability of
dams in both Malaysia and the world at large. However, the focus has been on
understanding the climate change factors and its influence on Malaysian dams.
On that ground, it has been found that dams are very important for economic
growth in the country because it is the source of electricity, irrigation,
water supply and other social amenities, making it important that
sustainability of dams is ensured because it would have a direct influence on
the sustainability of the economy.
From
the discussion above, it can be seen that sustainability of dams is very
important for a number of reasons:
1. It
will help to ensure constant supply of electricity that will be used to power
productivity in the country and also meet demands for the country’s goods in
international market.
2. It
will provide a reliable and constant supply of water for both industrial and
residential uses as well as irrigation for agricultural products and other
purpose for which water is used in the country.
3. Sustainability
of dams is also important because it will provide the county with needed
aquatic resources and food to keep its populace well-nourished and also reduce
the cost of importing these resources.
CHAPTER 3
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1 Introduction
At
this point, there is the need to stress on the understanding that this paper
has so far been successful in meeting the set objectives. This is because it
has followed the set guidelines carefully and delivered for all steps of which
it is expected to influence in the research process. On that ground, the
current point of study is now on the third aspect of the research is to design
the methodology for the primary research. Conducting primary research is very
important because it will help to gain an understanding as to whether what was
stressed in the review of literatures is actually what is obtainable in the
real world settings.
3.2 Reflection on
hypotheses
From
the gained understanding in the review of literature, a number of reflections
can be made with respect to hypotheses that are expected to be tested in the
study, and the hypotheses in this case are that:
1. Dams
are very important for the economic growth of Malaysia as a country;
2. The
management of dams is very important in order to ensure sustainability in terms
of the economic growth of the country;
3. Climate
change plays a significant negative role on the sustainability of dams in terms
of increase negative influence on aquatic lives, dam span and agriculture; and
4. Climate
change needs to be controlled in order to ensure that the negative influence it
lays on dams and the potential for continued growth in the country are
mitigated.
5. The
Malaysian government understand the potential of climate change to lay a number
or negative influence on dams in the country and its economic growth and on
that ground have enacted a number of polities, created new boards and agencies
to seek an understanding on how these negative influence can be reduced and
potentially eliminated
3.3 Research objectives
Based
on the understanding shared in the introduction and reflection of hypotheses,
it must be said at this point that the objectives of the primary research are
very direct with the main objective of the whole research and it is to
understand the influence of climate change on Malaysian dams and what the
Malaysian government have done in order to reduce these negative influence.
3.4 Research philosophy
In
order to ensure that the research objective is meet, it is without a doubt that
a clear standards in terms of what is acceptable within the research process
need to be set. Considering the sensitivity of the study in terms of the
understanding that it deals with things that will affect the livelihood of
people, it becomes clear that it is important to set a clear standard on what
is obtainable.
The
philosophy of this research is built around quality, reliability and
applicability. The implication is that information will be sourced from
reliable sources that have been tested over the years to retain its acclaimed
level of reliability. Additionally, the findings from sources need to be
applicable to the setting of the research in the sense that it must deal with
things in relation to Malaysian dams.
3.5 Materials and
methods
Since
this is a complex research and the understanding gained from the review of
literatures shows that it is very difficult to monitor changes in dams,
adaptation to changes by the aquatic lives in the dam, and the influence of
changes on economic development and sustainability. It becomes clear that
conducting a self-regulated primary research will most certainly be difficult
because it would require high time and dedication that might influence the
potential of this research to be delivered on time. On that ground, the primary
research will be done by comparing previous studies in the area and using these
studies to gain an understanding on how climate change has influenced Malaysian
dams and the measured adopted by the government to help the country in adapting
to these changes.
Figure
3.1: material gathering methods
From
the above figure, it can be seen that the data gathering will take the form of
two approaches. The first will be to gain an understanding of the research
topic from previous studies, then combine this understanding with previous
observations in order to arise at the main research objective which is to
assess the influence of climate change on Malaysian dams and what the Malaysian
government have done in order to enhance the county’s ability of adapting to
these changes.
On
that ground, it is expected that this research will be purely primarily sourced
from reliable websites, agencies, ministries, and the Malaysian government as
well. The information gathered will then be combined in order to achieve the
research objectives. However, other important discoveries that are aligned with
the research topic will also be included in the analysis of finding.
3.6 Time frame
Considering
the amount of information that will be gathered and the vast nature of sources
for these information, it is easily understandable that a reasonable amount of
time will be allocated for such purposes. The tine allocation will cover
information gathering, analysis and documentation. As such, the expected time
frame for this study is a period of one month. This is to allow for gathering
of necessary data, analysing the data and re-gathering data in cases where the
initially gathered data are deemed to be unfit for analysis.
3.7 Summary
The
summary of this chapter is basically that the primary research will be based on
primary sources that are gathered on their level of reliability, quality and
applicability to the context of the research objectives.
CHAPTER 4
ANALYSIS OF FINDING
4.1 Introduction
From
the chapter 3, it was made known that the purpose of this particular chapter is
to present an analysis of the discoveries made from the primary research and
that is exactly what this chapter intends to do. As such, this chapter will
present an analysis of how climate change has impacted on Malaysian dams and
assess the level of impact that this have been on the dam in terms of the
negative influence on sustainability and also assess the efforts of the
Malaysian government towards ensuring that such influence is corrected.
Impact
of climate change on Malaysian dams
Robert (2011) conducted a study on
the influence of climate change in the Malaysian setting and also presented in
the study, a review of the impact of climate change on Malaysian dams. The impact
was as expressed earlier in the literature review in the sense that it was
negative and influenced livelihood negatively. As a result of climate change,
there were increase in the level of rainfall especially in the Western part of
Malaysia, with the effect being the over flooding of the dams. The outcome of
the whole process is that people were significantly displaced, crops were lost,
and the total damage on humanities, crops and infrastructures ranked in
billions of Ringgit. On that ground, the government had to sources for
resources from other parts of the country and outside the country in order to
maintain sustainability of its populace.
While
some part of the country where flooding as a result of heavy rainfall, Robert
(2011) also made known that other parts of the country where facing high
droughts that lead to the drying of dams and water scarcity. The effect is also
loss of crops such as rice as there were no water to keep them alive. The
effect on humanity was very severe because the reliable sources of water supply
were all closed out and the government had to source for water from other part
of the country in order to alleviate the livelihood of people within the
affected area.
Basically,
the understanding gained is that climate change affects the dam by either
increasing the level of water or leading to water dryness. As such, the
situation is either too much water or less water and the most significant
influence of such is being yielded on the farming sector, resulting in
decreased productivity and increased starvation. On that ground, the discussion will be
narrowed somewhat down to understand how agricultural production is affected by
the climate change as influenced by dams in Malaysia.
4.2 Climate change and
agriculture in Malaysia: Dam as a source of irrigation
In
this section, the focus is to understand the influence of climate change on
agriculture in the country. The reason for narrowing down the focus to
agriculture is that Malaysia is an economy that is heavily dependent on agricultural
production while on the same hand is heavily influenced by climate change.
Additionally, dams are used in the county as a source of irrigation to farms.
Studies
have shown that agricultural practices in the country are directly related on a
very mutualistic sense (IPCC, 1990). In
Malaysia, there is a clear link between climate change and agricultural
practices with then view being that it is very circular in nature (IPCC, 1998). Climate change yield its influence on
most of the agricultural production and the influence on agricultural sector is
higher than the influence on other sectors as a result of its vast distribution
across the globe and strong linkage and dependence of the sector on climate and
environmental factors (IPCC, 1990). On that ground,
the influence of climate change on agricultural production has a direct impact
on the socio-economic settings of the country on both the macro and
micro-scales. The most common of such are floods and droughts which are
processes as directly have an effect on the relationship established between
agriculture and climate change (Mimikou and Baltas,
1997).
In
terms of understanding the impact of climate change on agriculture in the
country, it was been made known that the rate of CO2 emission in
Malaysia is very fast, with the differences in growth coming up between 2003
and 2005 with 70% increase as compared with what was obtainable between 1994
and 1996 (IPCC, 1990). Considering such a
drastic change, it becomes clear that agriculture is a sector that has a
considerable amount of influence on the contribution of the overall CO2
emission in the country, amount to 4.8% of such changes (IPCC, 1990). Another different study showed the
potential of Malaysia suffering variation of temperatures 0.7 to 2.6°C and variations
in rainfall that can amount to changes in the region of -30% to 30% [Mimikou and Baltas, 1997]. As a result of climate
change, the sea level is expected to rise in the future for a range of 15cm to
95cm over a period of 100 years (Chong, 2000). In accordance with Mad Nasir
andAhmad Makmom [2009], the impact of climate
change on agriculture can be classified into three different sections as:
4.2.1 Decrease in
agricultural productivity – as a result of
variations in rainfall, there will be variations in water availability and
supply and it will influence the agricultural productivity negatively because
of the fact that the crop yield will be significantly reduced.
4.2.2 Increase in food
insecurity – as a result of the decrease in
agricultural productivity, there will be a subsequent increase in food
insecurity as the demands of consumers will not be meet by the supply because
of the reduced level of supply in the agricultural sector.
4.2.3 Effect on supply
chain as a result of rise in sea level
– even the delivery of the available products will also be difficult because of
the subsequent increase in sea level that will disrupt the delivery plan and
also increase insecurity and unreliability in the delivery system.
A
number of studies in Malaysia have also discussed the impact of climate change
on Malaysian dams with specific linkage of the damages to Malaysian dams and
these linkages are:
4.2.4 Flood
– there have been documented cases of flood in the southern states of Malaysia,
which includes Negeri Sembilan, Melaka, Johor and Pahang. With Johor being the most affected as the
flood resulted in the displacement of 110,00 people, and also causing damages
estimated to be in the region of RM 0.35 billon for infrastructures, and RM 2.4
billion in economic losses as a result of decrease in productivity.
Additionally, it has been estimated that RM84 million worth of agricultural
produce where also damaged in the process, directly affecting 7000 farmers (Baharuddin, 2007). The study also noted that almost
all the landed areas in Malaysia are vulnerable to flooding, with the effect
reaching 3.5 million people. However, the process of estimating the cost of
such damages is very difficult to be carried out. In any case, the finding
indicates that it will cost an estimated value of RM 100 million in order to
conduct studies that will estimate the average flooding damage per year in the
country (Baharuddin, 2007).
Basically,
the finding in this case is very clear and direct in the sense that the
indication is as noted earlier in the review of literatures. From the
literature review, it was made known that climate change will influence the
dams negatively, resulting in overflowing dams that will cause floods. The
outcome of such will be a significant increase in flood related damages as the
flood will affect both the aquatic lives and property and lives of people on
the lack as well. The indication as shown in the above documentation is very
direct with this understanding because the flood has caused a substantial
amount of financial and non-financial damages with tens of thousands of people
displaced in the process. Additionally, the economy was also heavily affected
and it is expected that the displacement will increase poverty level in the
country because the displaced people will find it difficult to reunite with
their families and continue lives from where it used to be prior to the
flooding effects.
4.2.5 Droughts
– there are also documented cases of droughts linked to dams in the country. In
1991, Malacca caused the drying up of the Durian Tunggal 2 Dam and resulted in
prolonged water rationing most of parts of the state (Baharuddin,
2007). The outcome of the drying up affected over 170,000 people that
occupy an area of 2.797 km2. Still on the documentation of the
effects, it was made known that another 1580 km2 were victim of wild
fire, with 100 km2 of this area being agricultural lands. The total
number of farmers that were affected as a result of that round up to 7,200. On
the grounds of estimate, study also found that the losses in terms of financial
aspects amount to RM 7 million. As a result of the issues, numerous people in
different district were forced to suffer water rationing, and rice crop was
totally obsolete, forcing the government and public authorities to source for
food supply in other to alleviate the satiation. This was also experienced in
the North Eastern part of Sarawak near the regions close to Miri (Baharuddin, 2007).
4.3 Effects of dam
flooding and dryness on Malaysian crops
4.3.1 Rubber
– this crop highly influenced because the water supply need to yield must be
sustainable at all times, and when slight changes occur, it influences the
yield. An increase in rainfall is prejudicial in the rubber plantation sector
because it will suffer as a result of tapping days and washout of the crops
when fully grown (Baharuddin, 2007). As such,
when
4.3.2 Oil palm
– this is the peak of Malaysia productivity in terms of agricultural export and
any effect on this crop will definitely have huge impact on the country’s
economic development and sustainability. Although oil palm will theoretically
have higher growths following and increase in rainfall and dam flooding, it is
also important to understand that such water supply will negatively influence
crop yield when they are excessive (9). In the
Southern part of Malaysia, production of oil palm reduced by 26.35 as of
December 2006 due to excessive flooding (Baharuddin,
2007).
4.3.3 Rice
– crops that need wet conditions such as rice will be definitely affected by
decrease in rainfall. On that same note, rice grains yield will likely decline
by 9-10% for any increase in 1 degree Celsius (Baharuddin,
2007).
From
the above discussion, it can be seen that the negative influence on the
agricultural process because of the fact that climate change will result in
either an increase in water or dryness of the dam in general. As such, plants
that need wet conditions will not survive as a result of the dryness, while
excess water will also influence crop yield because of the high level of water
that doesn’t allow the crop to mature and yield as expected. From this point,
the next focus will not be to conduct an understanding of the how the country
is vulnerable by measuring all aspect of how the climate change affects the
dams and the subsequent influence on the economy.
4.4 An assessment of
climate change and vulnerabilities
Abul et al (2011) discussed on how
vulnerable Malaysia is to climate change with special reference to dams and the
effects of these dams on agriculture as well as economic development. From
their discussion, it was made known that as the climate is increasingly
changing, it is affecting Malaysian agriculture and dams in a number of ways;
its impact and the policies developed for creating awareness for the resources
that will be used to implement reduction in the impact are constantly being
voiced out in a number of top discussion that are based on climate change
policy and development activities (Abul., 2011).
In any case, the needed operational guidance on how to implement these
processes are still lacking in the academic field. The right approach for
contributing towards the development of appropriate policies for the managing
of climate change and reducing its influence on the Malaysian dams is by
adopting the right policy and framework that also have the power of enhancing
networking and communication amongst the stakeholders.
Abul et al (2011) made known that
establishing sustainable dam management requires a workable framework that will
be used to tackle climate change and mitigate the level of vulnerabilities that
the country might face in the process. In their projection, Abul et al (2011) made known that the right framework
for handling climate change and associated vulnerabilities as discussed in
their study is based on identifying the issues that caused the climate change
and developing a global framework that will seek to understand the issues from
a common view and develop the right approach of which countries across the
world will have to follow as it is a global issue that must be handled together
before it can be solved.
In
terms of measuring how vulnerable Malaysia is to climate change with special
reference to dams, the authors acknowledged earlier discussions that it will be
as a result of either flooding or drought. Climate change is constantly melting
the iceberg, leading to overflowing water and this is increasing the level of
flood in Malaysia. On a more serious note, Malaysia is an island that is very
much surrounded by water from the East to West and from the North to South. As
such, any overflowing water will have a significant impact on the country’s surrounding
and dams.
4.5 Institutional and
organizational arrangements made by Malaysia in response to the impact of
climate change
By
signing the UNFCCC treaty in 1993, Malaysia became a Non-Annex 1 part to the
UNFCCC. As a non-annex 1 party, Malaysia has the obligation of contributing
towards the reduction of emission of Green House Gasses (GHSs) that is
contained in the Kyoto Protocol. After the ratification of the Convention in
1994, Robert (2011) noted that efforts where
made with the purpose of strengthening the fight to address climate change in
Malaysia. On a present view, the policy adopted by Malaysia is precautionary
and a no-regret approach in which decisions to adopt such specific approach are
based on the understanding that they are the right solution for adapting to the
current issues faced by the country with respect to climate change or
eliminating the issue entirely.
The
issue is climate change and other related issue in the country are address
through numerous sectors such as the energy; forestry and natural resources
management; land use and planning; agriculture; solid waste; drainage and
irrigation (Robert, 2011). On most cases the actions taken by these sectors are
based on the central understanding gained about climate change and they are
being regulated by regulated by international obligations and committees in the
country that come in the form of three conventions as: 1) United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)’ 2) United Nations Convention
on Biological Diversity (CBD); and 3) United Nations Convention for Combating
Desertification (CCD). In order to meet the demands set by these conventions,
the country proceed to establish the National Steering Committee on Climate
Change (NSCCC) in 1994 under the Ministry of Science, Technology and the
Environment (MoSTE), and also the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment
(NRE) in 2004. These new establishments have a joint committee that comprises
of representatives from other ministries and agencies, extending to even the
private sector watchers and NGOs with the combined goal of monitoring the
climate change handling efforts by the Malaysian government and laying the
right background for new features that can be adopted by the Malaysian
government towards enhancing these efforts and producing more effective
approaches for solving the issue of climate change (Robert, 2011).
In
order to formulate the right approach for implementing climate change policies,
the National Committee undertakes numerous roles that also include the
mitigation of GHG emissions and adaptation approaches to climate change by:
1. Developing
the right formula, policy and strategy for addressing and adopting to climate
change;
2. Developing
and coordinating action plans on the national level in order to meet the
committee that have been agreed upon in the UNFCCC;
3. Serving
as the national focus point when it comes to sourcing for external financial
and technical assistance with respect to assisting in climate change
programmer; and
4. Presenting
discussions and recommendations with respect to Malaysia’s position on issues
that are related to climate change in the international scene
The
Malaysian government also established the National Green Technology and Climate
Change Council in 2010, which is an establishment, raved up by the Prime
Minister of Malaysia with the main objective of coordinating and facilitating
the implementation of National Policy on Climate Change and National Green
Technology Policy. There are a number of working committee that support the
council with one of them coning on adaptation. The working committee on
adoption is powered by the Ministry of Natural Resource and Environment, with
its members coming from different agencies with the main purpose of promoting
the implementation and adaptation programs at different levels in the system
(Robert, 2011).
Table
4.1: View of the roles and responsibilities of state actors addressing climate
change adaptation in rural Malaysia
CONTENT
|
IMPLEMENTATION
AGENCIES
|
Adaptation service
providers
|
Ministry of
Natural Resources and Environment:
1.
Ministry of Land and Co-operative Development;
2.
Forestry Department Peninsular Malaysia;
3.
Forest Research Institute Malaysia;
4.
Department of Environment;
5.
Department of Wildlife & National Parks Peninsular
6.
Malaysia;
7.
Department of Irrigation and Drainage; and the
8.
National Hydraulic Research Institute of Malaysia
Ministry of
Energy, Water and Communication;
Ministry of
Agriculture and Agro-Based Industries;
Ministry of
Plantation Industries & Commodities;
Ministry of
Health;
Ministry of
Education; and the
Malaysian
Meteorological Department.
|
Adaptation Knowledge
Generation and Management
|
Department
of Statistics;
Ministry of
Science, Technology & Innovation; and the
Ministry of
Higher Learning;
1.
LESTARI, University Kebangsaan Malaysia;
2.
University Malaya Climate Change Centre;
3.
University Sains Malaysia; and the
4. University Putra Malaysia.
|
Adaptation Planning and
Coordination
|
Sabah State Economic
Planning Unit;
Sarawak State
Planning Unit; and the
Economic Planning Unit,
Prime Minister Department
|
Multiple Purpose
|
Ministry of
Transport;
Ministry of Housing
and Local Government; and the
Ministry of
International Trade and Industry.
|
Source
as adapted from: Robert (2011)
4.6 Policies and
regulations designed by the Malaysian government in response to climate change
In
the Malaysian context, the management of climate change management is something
that comes in a cross sectorial form, involving a number of issues besides the
environmentally related issues, and also affecting the economic and human
well-being (Pereira, J.J. and Subramaniam, M. (Eds.),
2007). As an example, the conservation of natural resources and
biological diversity is carried out by implementing a number of laws and
regulations across different sectors of the economy as the Protection of
Wildlife Act (1972), Environmental Quality Act (1974),National Forestry Act
(1984) and Fisheries Act (1985). Another issue that is also addressed in the
5-year plan is the conversation of biodiversity, as well as policies like the
National Policy on Biological Diversity (1998), National Policy on the
Environment (2002), National Wetlands Policy (2004), National Physical Plan
(2005), and National Urbanization Plan (2006). It has been noted that these
polices together with other laws provide the foundation from which climate
change related policies and regulations can then be used to support actions in
the different sectors of the economy (NRE, 2008).
as illustrated in the table 4.2 below.
Table
4.2: Policies, regulations and laws used to indirectly address climate change
in Malaysia
Content
|
Policies,
laws, and regulations
|
National Policies
|
Malaysia Third
Outline Perspective Plan (2001 – 2010);
Ninth Malaysia Plan
(2006-2010);
National Policy on
the Environment (2001);
National Physical
Plan (2005); and
National Urbanization
Policy (2006).
|
Sectoral Policies
|
National Agriculture
Policy (1998-2010);
National Biofuel
Policy (2006); and
National Forestry
Policy (1978, revised 1992).
|
Laws and Regulations
|
Environmental Quality
Act, (1974) (amended in 1985 and 1995);
Environmental Quality
Clean Air Regulation (1978);
Environmental Quality
Prescribed Activities Regulation (EIA
Order) (1987); and
National Forestry Act
(1984).
Sabah
Environment
Protection Enactment (2002); and
Forest Enactment
(1968).
Sarawak
Natural Resources and
Environment Ordinance (1993); and
Forest Ordinance
(1958).
|
Source
as adapted from: Robert (2011)
4.7 Regional and
national climate change adaptation efforts
From
the gained understanding so far in this paper, it can be seen that Malaysia has
perhaps taken a giant and unique approach towards the management of climate
change and adaptation; and these approaches are often coined as “an adaptation
through climate change mitigation,” which is more of an indication of the
unavoidable need for adaptation to this phenomenon. However, Robert (2011)
noted that such understanding must be delivered in the form of a co-benefit
from concerted mitigation actions. In any case, the adaptation to climate
change in Malaysia is more of an action packed process designed by the affected
entities; which requires response from both the national, state and local
government level agencies. Robert (2011) also noted that accordingly, much of
the adaptive response to climate change in the country comes in the form of
improved ecosystem management, the management of water resources, and secured
agricultural production – each of this conducted in such a way to enhance the
improvement of productivity, efficiency in the use of resources and the
optimization of economy benefit for the country, as well as to the individuals.
Basically,
the understanding is that Malaysia has taken a giant step towards the
development of a unique approach to management of water resources in the
country and this comes as an area of focusing considering the fact that the
main objective of this paper is centred on the understanding of the country’s
approach towards the management of dams in the country. Dams serve as one of
the most reliable sources of water supply in the country and it is important to
manage it with reference to the earlier discussion where it was made known that
climate change has changed the flow of dams and affected its utility
significantly. On that ground, it becomes very much significant to gain the
understanding that the Malaysian government have moved towards ensuring that
dams are protected by adopting number of protective policies and strategies.
As
a result of the need to address climate change issues in the country, it was
also noted by Robert (2011) that the country has
given attention to autonomous climate change adaptation in practices; instead
of focusing on specific places for assessment and planned strategies that will
be used to achieve these objectives. There are six main areas that have been
exemplified within literature and the Malaysian Second National Communication to
the UNFCCC (NRE, 2011) as: 1) Knowledge
development and use, 2) Environmental Sustainability, 3) Water Resources, 4)
Agriculture Production, 5) Public Safety and Wellbeing, and 6) Policy and
Governance. These areas are as discussed below.
4.8 Strategic knowledge
development and use – how Malaysia is vulnerable and plans to avoid
vulnerability
Going
back to the original step, it was made clear that there are a number of
agencies in Malaysia that have been enacted and involved in the compiling of
GHG inventories and also studying the potential of mitigating and adopting
measures for (CEMD NRE, 2005). It was deemed
very necessary that Malaysia instituted a comprehensive research and systematic
observation mechanism that would involve the relevant institutions in the
country such as the NAHRIM and the Malaysian scientists from the: International
Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP); Global Change SysTem for Analysis,
Research and Training (START); and the Southeast Asia Regional Committee for
START (SARCS) regional programs on climate change (Salmah,
Z, Jamalluddin, A., and Y. Chan, 2007). These efforts have resulted in
an increase on the climate change adaptation knowledge that is presently being
used to simultaneously amongst industries in the economy; with each of them
being supported by efforts that are related to conducting vulnerability test,
understanding the impacts of climate change and assessing the areas of health,
natural disasters and extreme event, waster scarcity, environmental security
and sustainability, spatial planning responses; towards the understanding and
assessment of the liability of such impacts on the local level. These features
as mentioned in the study have been also used to as support and efforts done in
the process of preparing for the NC2 such as the downscaling of climate
projection in order to make sure that the spatial details are in quantitative
vulnerability and the adoptions can easily be assessed.
In
terms of measuring Malaysian achievements, one of its most significant
achievements has been towards the development of a “Regional Hydro-Climate
Model used in Peninsular Malaysia” for the purpose of generating climate and
hydrological projections. Robert (2011) also made known that there is a similar
project for Sabah and Sarawak that is presently on the completion stage.
Malaysia has also been making used of other projection models like the “Providing
Regional Climates for Impacts Studies (PRECIS)’, which is used for the purpose
of understanding and projecting changes in terms of impact of the climate
change and the needs for adaptation. The force behind the development of this
model is the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research, United Kingdom
Meteorological Office. In terms of understanding the difference between the two
morels, what is distinct is that the PRECIS model has only been able to offer
important information that is within the scale of 50 km resolutions while the
RegHCMPM can be used to conduct same activity at the scale of 9 km. In any
case, both of these models have been able to provide Malaysia with a very
detailed quantitative impact of climate change and assessing the vulnerability
of the country towards the development and selection of the most appropriate
adaptation options (NRE, 2011). Additionally, it
was made known by Robert (2011) that there is the need to understand the
importance of such because the efforts made by Malaysia towards building
climate change adaptation knowledge is very much focused on learning “what it
is that they are adapting to” , which is the basic conditions that govern the
adaptation process, with the case of “how to adapt” has been on the second
stage for most of the times.
Basically,
the underlying element from the above discussion is that the country desires to
gain knowledge of their adaptation process in order to ensure that they are
well vast with the respective skills needed to make such process a success.
Instead of broader view and a more innovative approach to creating solutions
even for problems that are not yet in existence, the focus of Malaysia
basically is to understands what the country is adapting to and then building a
better background on what is needed to make the adaptation process a success.
As such, the strategic knowledge as discussed by Robert (2011) reads meaning
into the situation at hand and then develops an understanding of expected
outcome and processes to make the outcome a success by focusing primarily on
the situation. Om a more concise view, this is very effective because the right
way to providing a solution to any given problem is best to understand what the
problem is all about. Once the problem and its causes have been identified,
then the right solutions can be made to handle these problems effectively and
efficiently.
4.9 Strategic action
for environmental sustainability
Malaysia
is also very active in pursuing the adaptation needs for climate change on the
national scale through its involvement with the marine environment by
participating in the Coral Triangle Initiate (CTI). The main reason for such as
identified by Robert (2011) is because there has been recognition that the
global marine and coastal ecosystem captures and stores more than 30% of the
carbon emissions caused by humans., such as those that pass through the
mangrove forests, sea grass beds and salt marshes; with each of these described
as being very efficient in capturing and storing carbon. The destruction and
degradation of these ecosystems have also been known to degrade the adaptive
capacity of local users to the changes in climate and other related impacts.
The Malaysian government has also reached an agreement with the CTI on ways to
1) finalize its main objectives approaches, timelines and actions that are
geared towards the development of a CTI scope on region-wide Early Action Plant
for Climate Change Adaptation (REAP-CCA), and 2) collaborating on a climate
change adaptation scheme that is based on shared policies and capacity building
towards finding common grounds as to where the CTI can stand together on the
issues related to policy with respect to regional and global forums and work
together towards achieving a shared solution (USAID,
2010).
Malaysia
has also adopted a number of efforts toward ensuring that sustainable
development and management of coastal areas are assured with special reference
to how the country will be able to cope with the impacts of climate differences
and changes, which also include the rise in sea levels. The implementation of
the Integrated Shoreline Management Plans (ISMP) by local authorities has also
been begun in the secreted coastal areas of the country (NRE, 2011).
Another
of supports have also emerged from areas outside the country like the small
grants program of the Global Environment Facility (GEF SGP) which has offered a
number of support to the efforts made towards creating environmental
sustainability like the conservation of biodiversity, the reduction of risks of
climate change, reduction of water pollution and stopping the degradation of
land, coupled with other efforts that are all geared towards ensuring a more
sustainable environment. By combing these efforts with its partner, GEF has
been able to commit a high volume of funding on the national and NGOs, as well
as Community Based Organization (CBOs); all for the purpose of supporting these
organizations in their efforts to address global environmental problems by with
efforts geared towards increasing the level of public awareness., building
partnership and also promoting policies that are geared towards addressing
dialogues, promoting sustainable development and addressing global
environmental problems – all for the purpose of ensuring that conversation and
strategies for sustainable development that protect the global environment are
well understood and adopted by the communities and other major stakeholder such
as the backbone of Malaysia’s position and action on climate change when it
comes to the adaptation scheme on a global level (UNDP,
2008).
In
terms of the agricultural sectors, there are measures developed by the country
towards enhancing the National Seed Bank collection and these measure have been
geared towards ensuring that the survival of genetic stocks are well in line.
Also there have been an expansion on the protected forest areas and the forest
state parks and this is expected based on the argument presented by Robert
(2011) to enhance the natural adaptation processes of forest and other related
industries in the country. There are also numerous achievements when it comes
to measuring the success of the forest management efforts in Malaysia that are
done through numerous processes designed to build a sort of local resilience to
changes in climate and the impact of such processes. For instance, Deramakot
Forest Reserve Project, which are implemented under the guidance of multiple
functions and usages, has a strong emphasis on the productivity level of the economy
in the future and the Kelawat Forest Reserve, which is aajoint forest
management project in forest restoration and management also has the same goal
of ensuring sustainability in the system (Robert, 2011).
Basically,
the understanding gained from the above discussion is more of a reflection on
the literature review. This is based on the understanding that it stated the
same idea of ensuring sustainability of the system through a well-managed
policy and approach to the management process.
4.10 Strategic action
in the water sector
Another
area that the Malaysian government has been planting more efforts with respect
to management of climate change is in the water sector. Robert (2011) noted that the Malaysian efforts towards addressing
climate change is perhaps more revealing within the water sector as it has
incorporated a number of change and adaptation activities with high reference
to increase water sustainability and this have been supported by the
establishment of Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) plans. The focus
of this plan is also in line with the established quota made by the UNFCC, and
the country has strengthened its ability to handle floods and droughts. Additionally,
Malaysia as noted by Robert (2011) has also
moved to strengthen its adaptive measures and infrastructurese.g. the ‘Storm Water
Management and Road Tunnel’ (SMART), which has helped in addressingurban
flooding in Kuala Lumpur city, and the structural upgrade of the TimahTasoh Dam
in the state of Perlis, i.e. strengthening water storage capacities to
alleviate water shortages during periods of low rainfall and drought (NRE, 2011). Other measure include the enlargement of
the reservoir capacity for reservoirs across the country in order to create
sustainable water supply in the country and reduce the potential of water
shortage that can be of negative influence on peoples’ lives.
Basically,
the above discussions clearly illustrate that Malaysia has been successful in
enacting a number of policies geared towards reducing the negative effects of
climate change on the country and these policies have been successful in
addressing these issues.
4.11 Summary of
findings
Figure 4.1: checklist
summary of findings
Basically,
the figure above, the findings have been summarized as to the fact that dams
are very important in Malaysia. The importance of dams in the country can be
stressed on the fact that they are used for generating power that are used to
power the economy, they serve as a source of water supply for households and
they are an effective source of water for agricultural related purpose.
However, it was also found that dams are being negatively affected by climate
change, and a more comfortable finding is that the Malaysian government has
been successful in enacting a number of policies that are geared towards
reducing these negative effects. The final finding statement is while Malaysian
government has been successful in enacting a number of policies to solve these
issues, their efforts has not be very effective and more efforts need to be
added as the effects of climate change on dams is still being experienced in
the country. However, this could also be linked to the fact that climate change
is a global issue and even when Malaysia is putting high efforts, there efforts
can still be worthless if other countries are not committed towards reducing
climate change and its effects.
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSION AND
RECOMMENDATION
5.1 Introduction
Right
from the onset of this paper, it was made clear that the main purpose is to
understand how climate change have influences the performance of Malaysian dams
and to gain an understanding of the approaches adopted by the Malaysian
government to make such influence reduced and possibly eliminate them. On that
ground, it was also made known that the research process will conducted into 5
chapters. As such, the main purpose of this chapter is to analyse the finding
from the whole research process. On that ground, the summary of the entire
chapter will be presented below, then followed by the summary of main findings
from the research process and concluded with recommendations for future
researches.
5.2 Summary of chapters
In
the first chapter of this research, it was made clear that the focus will be on
presenting a background of the research topic and identifying the main purpose
of the research, approaches to be adopted and discussing the limitations of the
research process. In the background study, it was shown that climate change is
the process in which the topographical setting of a given geographical area
changes from its natural setting into a new form that seems to be a difficult
frame for the survival of existing inhabitants in this place. When measuring
the effects of climate changes, it was associated with decline in economy as
the country struggles to maintain sustainability, as well as increase in
operation costs due to the associated costs that must be incurred in order to
make the struggle for sustainability a success. The purpose of the research was
once again highlighted and it was deemed right to undertake the research
process by answering a number of questions as to: what is climate change? What
are the causes of climate change? How does a change in climate influence
Malaysian dams negatively? How can these influences be mitigated or reduced?
What are the measures adopted by the Malaysian government to address these
effects.
The
second chapter is the review of literatures and the focus of this chapter is to
gain an understanding of the theories that surround or relate to the research
topic. In this chapter, the causes of climate change were deemed to be GHG
which has heated up the atmosphere and resulting in melting of ice bergs. The
effects is however different. In some areas, climate change are melting the ice
bergs and as such causing flooding; whilst in other areas, the effect is
increased dryness and droughts. No matter how you look at it, the negative effects
are things that need to be addressed in order to ensure the sustainability of
the human race. If these issues are not addressed, the increase in flood will
lead to displacement while increase in drought will bring about famine.
In
any case, the research focuses on dams and as it was right to also understand
what dams are all about. The gained understanding is that dams are human made
constructions that converges free flowing waters together specific purposes. In
terms of understanding the purpose for converging waters together, it can be
either for agricultural related purposes or for the generation of
hydroelectricity. For agricultural purposes, the waters are not actually
allowed to flow out; they are compacted together like a lake. This will ensure
that when used for fishery purposes, the fishes will not flow out of the
location and it will make harvesting easier and more efficient. For irrigation
purposes, water from the dam are passed to the farm through automatic
irrigation systems that keeps the dry land wet and perfect for the survival of
crops. The difference comes when it is used for the generation of hydropower.
This is because, dams constructed for the purpose of generating hydropower are
actually allowed to flow over. The water are brought together and compressed so
that the flowing speeding and strength will be increased. The flowing water
wills then spine the turbine which converts kinetic energy into mechanical
energy. The installed generator will then make use of the mechanical energy to
generate electricity and distribute it to all the connected areas. This is
basically the process of how electric energy is generated. In essence the speed
of the ocean is very important for the generation of electricity and the higher
the flow of water, the better the generation power as it would be able to turn
the turbine even more fasters. However, the influence of the global warming now
means that some areas are getting dryer such as some part of Miri in Sarawak
and confirmed in the study. This dryness means that enough water will not be
available for the spinning of the turbine and the potential of these areas to
generate electricity is significantly reduced (if not eliminated). Still on
understanding the influence of the dryness of a dam, it was also made known
that dams serve as the most common sources of water in Malaysian households.
Most of the waters are sources from numerous rivers and dams, and then sent to
the reservoir for the purification processes before being finally distributed
to Malaysian households. If this is the case, then it can easily be seen that
the negative influence of the climate change on dams is very significant and
also have a direct influence on the sustainability of the human race. This is
because the overall livelihood of the human race depend heavily on the dams are
sources of water for agricultural purposes, usages in households and generation
of power.
This
same section of the paper also measured the effects of the negative influence
that climate change wields on dams. In the process, it was found that climate
change will influences the economy negatively as a result of the negative
influence it has on dams. Since flooding and drought are part of climate
change, crop yields will be affected negatively. Additionally, the potential of
the economic to remain sustainable is also reduced because of the reduction in
power generation due to increased dryness of the dams. Even when the effects on
human race are measured, the dryness of dams will means an increase in
water-borne diseases because the sharing of water as experienced in the past in
Johor Bahru will result to people seeking other sources of water and reverting
to making use of water that might be dangerous to their livelihoods and health.
Basically, the effect of climate change cannot be overemphasized when it is
measured in terms of dams being affected in the Malaysian settings.
On
that account, the focus was shifted towards understanding how sustainability
can be ensured in the Malaysian dams in order to ensure that they don’t lose
out on their true values and their overall impact on economic development is
not negatively affected. Sustainability is defined in this chapter as the
ability of the present generation to meet their own need without limiting the
potentials of the future generations to meet their own needs as well. In terms
of aligning it to dams, it means that the dams should be able to serve the
needs of the present generation, without limiting the potentials of the future
generation to meet their own needs. Therefore, the dams must be cable of
providing the needed electricity to power the production industry presently and
also be able to do the same function in the future. However, the potential of
dams to be sustainable has been limited by climate change which now means that
some of the dams are over flowing and reading to unregulated power generation;
while other are getting dryer, resulting in decrease power generation and as
such decline in productivity as well as increase in operation costs as both the
government and companies now have to source for other means of generating
power. Additionally, it was noted that some of the other means can result in
the release of toxic wastes in the environment, which is very disastrous to
both human and other living things in the ecosystem.
The
third chapter as noted earlier in the introduction is the methodology and it is
in this chapter that the approaches to be adopted for primary research were
discussed. The basic understanding is that the primary research will be based
on primary sourcing instead of experimental study. This is because experimental
study is very hard to be conducted, takes lots of time that can extend down to
thousands of years in the process of measuring the impact of climate change,
requires huge capital and is in most cases very difficult for a single
individual to handle. The process of choosing the primary sources is based on
the understanding that it must be reliable and trusted. Thus, all the
information uses for this research where gathered from studies either conducted
by the related agencies when it comes to managing climate change in Malaysian
or conducted by foreign agencies for the same purpose in Malaysia or in other
countries across the world.
The
fourth chapter is the analysis of finding. It is in this chapter that the main
findings were analysed. Based on the understanding presented in this chapter,
it was made known that climate change is impacting on Malaysian dams in a
number of negative ways. The overall impact is a decline in economic growth.
The effects are increased flooding and drought. In some parts of the country,
the level of flood is increasing and this is causing a number of issues for
concern. For instance, the flooding in Johor Bahru has been the main reason for
displacement of hundreds of Malaysia. Still in the same place, there have also
been documented cases of drought that have resulted in rationing of water
within these areas (Robert, 2011). Thus, it can be seen that this is a very
significant issue as it is affecting the whole Malaysian people and its
economic development. In terms of measuring the impact on economic growth, it
was noted that there is an increase in flooding which is causing destruction of
agricultural products. Even for plants that need wet soils in order to mature
such as the rice and oil palm, excess of water supply will also impact the
maturity of these plants and their overall productivity level. Reverse the case
to places where there issues are droughts, then it can be seen that the issue
becomes even significant because all the plant and aquatic lives need these
dams in order to survive.
Basically,
Robert (2011) made known in a research conducted form the Malaysian Ministry of
Environment that climate change has been affected the country since the earlier
2000s. The influence has resulted in some parts of Miri in Sarawak getting
really dried up and no longer able to sustain plants and other lives. Malaysia
as a country also depends on hydropower for about 13% of its total energy
consumption with climate change limiting the potentials for such success as a
number of dams in the country have been affected by the changes in weather and
other topographical setting.
Thus,
considering these negative influences, what are the approaches adopted by the
Malaysian government in order to handle these negative effects? The answer as
also found from the discoveries in the chapter four is that Malaysian has
adopted more of a proactive approach to the situation by being high in
uncertainties avoidance. The question asked by the government with respect to
climate change “what are we changing for”. The understanding is that they want
to be very sure of the reason to change and how they can change. In the view of
that, Malaysia has recognized the importance of the change process and have
effectively adopted a number of approaches that also include partnership with a
number of foreign agencies and organizations for the purpose of understanding
how these issues can be handled. The outcome of the overall partnership has been
a witnessed increase in the level of adaptation and an increase awareness of
these issues.
Effectively,
the Malaysian government have under the guidelines set by these foreign
agencies established a number of ministries dedicated for the sole purpose of
handling climate change. Since the country came to realise the importance of
handling the issue of climate change, it had been investing on numerous
researches designed to understand how the issue can be handled as well as
joining a number of global bodies that are tackling the issue of climate change
from different views.
This
chapter also measured the level of success achieved by the Malaysian government
since its inception of the idea and it was made known that the success has been
huge because the government has been
able to create huge awareness which have also influenced adoption down to the
local government and community levels. Also, the success can be reflected from
the heavy acceptance of the idea in the Malaysian society. A number of laws have
also been enacted by the government for the purpose of addressing the issue and
it has also been a key factor in increasing the success level.
The
fifth chapter is the chapter in which the researcher is presently writing
about. This chapter presents a summary of all the findings form the research as
well as recommendations for future related researches. Additionally, the
researcher also wrote down a reflection on the whole research process in order
to highlight the issues that were faced during the research and how the
researcher handled them – as such providing the right background for ensuring
that such issues doesn’t occur in future related researches.
5.3 Summary of finding
A
number of findings were made in this research and some of the most significant
of such findings include:
5.3.1 Malaysia heavily
depends on dams – dam is an important asset in
ensuring sustainability of livelihood and economy of Malaysia. This is because
the countries depend on it for agricultural purposes, household uses and hydro
power. In the case of hydropower, the country is very reliant on dams because
13% of the total energy used in the country per annum is generated from
hydropower. Malaysia is also the highest producer of oil palm and this crop
needs high water supply in order to maintain its yield. It is the dams that
make this possible as well. Even when the case is moved to down to the
importance of dams to the households, it was easily understood from the
research that it is very important. The residents of Malaysia need the dams to
be fully functional in order to ensure that needed water are supplied to the
various households across the country. Water is very important for almost
activities at homes and as such its shortage will be detrimental as experienced
in JuhorBahru where the increase in river and dam dryness resulted in water
being rationed across certain parts of the state and household not being
provided with enough water to go about their e activities.
5.3.2 The change in
climate is impacting on dams negatively
– while dams are very important to both economic sustainability and the
sustainability of livelihoods in the country, another understanding gained is
that the increase in climate change is causing a number of issues in the
country. Definitely, it should be expected that these issues will be negative
in nature and the finding from the paper is not different with such
expectations. Climate change is resulting in increase in water level in certain
parts of the country, while dryness is experienced in order parts. No matter
the case, the effect is still a disadvantage. The increase in ocean levels will
lead to flooding with an effect of displacement to the human race, destruction
of crops and houses, and the aquatic lives that will be flushed out from their
original ecosystem. Basically, the effects will have a combined influence on
reduced economic growth for the country. When the case is dryness, the effect
is even worse because the all lives need water to survive. As such, the two
most common case of the effects of climate change in the Malaysian setting is
similar with what is obtainable in the world – which are droughts and floods –
and they both have negative influence on economic development and growth.
Another
finding that was noted is that Malaysia depends heavily on hydropower as 11% of
the generated energy in the country is produced through this means. On a
similar note, when the level of dams decreases, it will result to a decrease in
the level of power generated and the effect will be a subsequent decrease in
the level of productivity because there will not be enough energy supply to
make such a success.
Considering
the negative effects that this will have on the economic growth of the country,
it becomes important to ensure that Malaysia has a well-planned approach for
handling the negative effects of climate change. The finding also showed that
the Malaysian government understands the need for such and have enacted a
number of policies as well as established numerous ministries to make such
management process active.
5.3.3 Malaysian
government is working hard toward the management of these negative influence in
order to ensure both economic and ecosystem sustainability
– as a response measure to the negative effects of climate change on dams, the
Malaysian government have taken a proactive approach to the management of these
effects by establishing numerous units and agencies as well as partnering with
a number of foreign bodies in order to tackle the issue effectively. Malaysia
addresses the issue in a low uncertainty measure approach by asking the
question of: “what is the problem and how can it be solved?” Such question is
very effective because it offer the agencies the needed insight on the problem
facing the country and the agency can then build an effective solution to the
problem by first understanding it, how it came about and how it can be solved.
Malaysian
has also joined a number of foreign organizations such as the United Nation
Climate Change Commission (UNCCC), with the commitment to abide by the
referendum signed in joining the organization. The referendum highlights a
number of approaches that Malaysia must tackle as a country toward meeting
global objectives of reduced level of climate change in the world. The main
issue that this organization seeks to address is the reduction in Co2 emission
and GHG levels across the world. These gasses have been linked as the main
causes of climate change in the world with an effective increase in melting of
the iceberg – which is the main cause of flooding across the word as ocean
levels rise.
In
term of measuring the success of Malaysian efforts, it was also made known in
the discussion that Malaysia has been successful with these approaches as it
has experienced an increase in the level of awareness for the issue of climate
change. The adoption rate has also been inspiration with adoption extending down
to community and local level as well as on individual grounds. Malaysia has
re-shaped its construction industry with the main focus being on understanding
ways to improve the sustainability in the country by reducing the negative
effects of climate change on both dams and other resources in the country. On
that ground, it can be stated that the county has been successful in a number
of ways with respect to handling the issue being discussed about.
5.4 Recommendations
From
the above discussions, it have been gathered that Malaysia has been successful
in implementing a number of solutions that are geared towards increasing the
country’s level of understanding on how climate change is impacting its economy
and also adopting necessary features in order to ensure that the impact is
significantly reduced. While their efforts have yielded success in the years
being reviewed, it must still be reiterated that a number of changes are still
necessary in order to ensure that this positive results are sustainable and permanent
and lasting solution will be provided for the situation at hand.
The
first recommendation is that the Malaysian government should be more stringent
with companies with respect to enacting the necessary rules and regulations
those companies must abide with the process of constructing or maintaining the
dams. The first of such rule should be that dams should be constructed in areas
that have reliable water supply system and tested to be able of withstanding
any form of shortage in water supply. Considering the fact that change in
climate have been linked to a number of effects on dams in Malaysia with
reference to the Tajung Dam in which it resulted in shortage of power
generating ability as a result of decline in the water level, it can easily be viewed
that the, main focus of any new approach designed to enhance the sustainability
of dams should be focused mainly on ensuring that the water supply to dams is
very sustainable. Therefore, the new acts should be designed in such a way that
companies are forced to conduct a proper topographical review and analysis to
understand to first determine that there is a sustainable means of water supply
in the areas the dams are meant to be constructed before undertaking any
project designed to serve dam related purposes in the country. The expected
outcome is that there will be an increase in the sustainability of the water
supply systems in dams and this will effectively increase the overall
sustainable usage of the dams.
Another
recommendation is that the Malaysian government should adopt more monitoring
programs that are designed with the purpose of continuously monitoring dams in
the country. There is a common saying that failing to plan is planning to fail.
If the water levels on dams are not properly and closely monitored, the effects
could be more dangerous. For instance, if the dams are used primarily for
household supply and purposes, they need to be monitored closely in order to
make sure that the government is more aware of the changes in water level and
such understanding will mean a positive news because they will have higher time
to search for alternatives or handle the issue before it becomes more
problematic. As such, the process of monitoring the changes in water level if
an effective approach for solving the problems of reduced water levels in dam
as caused by climate change.
5.5 Conclusion
Overall,
this research can be described as a success. This is because it has been
successful in achieving set objectives of understanding the influence of climate
change on Malaysian dams and assessing the approaches adopted by the government
towards handling this issue. Effectively, the research has been able to
highlight that the main effects are increased flood and drought – which reduces
the economic performance of the country as it directly influences productivity
negatively. However, the Malaysian
government has been successful in enacting a number of laws and policies as
well as establishing numerous ministries with the sole purpose of solving the
issue of climate change and reducing its influence in the country. In any case,
it was also made known that a number of other approaches still need to be
undertaken by the government as it is the only way in which sustainability can
be ensured both on dams and the economic performance of Malaysia.
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