Managing flooding in the District of Padang Terap, Kedah: A perception and response analysis of local community leaders

From the context of adaptation and risk management, individuals or groups, who may be categorsed as poor or unfortunate to adaptation must be enabled to change in order to become ‘strong and ready’, and those categorized as ‘unprepared’ to become ‘well prepared’ in facing the flood phenomena. Flood in Malaysia, especially in Kedah, is normally caused by the combination of heavy and continuous rain, uncontrolled development, and unsustainable irrigation systems. As a result, individuals who are least unprepared would be the most affected by floods. Based on field research involving focus group discussions (FGD) with 32 local leaders in Kedah’s Padang Terap district, this article analyses the problems faced by local leaders in the management of floods in their respective villages and the adaptation strategies adopted there during flooding. The results show that major problems faced by the district’s flood victims pertained not only to insufficient flood relief shelters to cater to the actual number of flood victims but also to the lack of cooperation from flood victims due to personal ideologies. Issues pertaining to cronism, misuse of resources, beaurocratic red tape, monopolistic tendencies and political conflicts compounded the already less than systematic state of the flood management. Empowerment of the local leaders should certainly be a priority in any future effort to ameliorate the plight of the flood victims .