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International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences
2017, Vol. 7, No. 10
ISSN: 2222-6990
525
www.hrmars.com
Flood Disaster Water Supply: A Review of Issues and
Challenges in Malaysia
Koh Liew See, Nasir Nayan & Zullyadini A. Rahaman
Department of Geography and Environment, Faculty of Human Sciences, Sultan Idris Education
University, 35900 Tanjong Malim, Perak, Malaysia
DOI: 10.6007/IJARBSS/v7-i10/3406 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.6007/IJARBSS/v7-i10/3406
Abstract
Potable water is essential for the survival of flood victims in flood evacuation centers. This
paper review water supply issues during flood events. Several water supply issues experienced
by flood victims were identified such as contaminated water resource, scarcity of safe drinking
water, flood-related disease outbreak and disruption of water treatment facilities. This paper
also discusses on the challenges to overcome the water supply problems during flood such as
lack of access to potable water, unable to treat water properly, accessibility of potable water,
speedy restoration process of water supply and accessibility of health services. Hence, the
management of water supply during the flood should be done efficiently and systematically to
ensure sufficient and safe water supply for flood victims. In this effort, roles and cooperation’s
of various agencies are very important in ensuring the affected flood victims obtain clean and
continuous water supply despite flooding.
Keywords: Water Supply, Flood, Issues, Challenges, Management
Introduction
Water is vital for all living things. In the context of science, water can exist in three phases;
solid, liquid and gas. Clean water plays an important role to humans for drinking, washing and
cooking. About 71 percent of earth surface is covered by water or ice (De Blij, Muller, &
Williams, 2004). Before water can be used for daily activities, it was treated and then
distributed by the water supply agencies and known as treated water. Each state has their own
water supply agency to manage the water resources to ensure it is safe for the consumers.
Oftenly, the consumers face problems with water supply during floods events, especially in
terms of quality and quantity. This paper provides a brief overview on issues of potable water
during flood events. This paper also discusses on the challenges to solve the issues in the form
of review the literature from different sources, previous studies of other researchers, books,
handbooks and journals related to water supply during flood events.
Background Study
Generally, domestic water supply is treated and clean before distributed for human
consumption. Every country has their own procedure service to ensure safe water for
consumers. According to Spellman (2008); Koh and Hamirdin (2015), water supply services is a
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process in which raw water (river or groundwater) are collected, treated and distributed for
human consumption. It can be used for various purposes such as agricultural, domestic,
commercial and public. In particular, clean water must meet several requirements such as
palatable, safe, clean, colourless and odourless, neutral and non-corrosive (Gray, 2008). If the
water supply is contaminated, it will affect domestic activities and human health. To ensure the
quality of water supply, water supply management play a vital role in ensuring water supplies
are clean and safe for consumers. Water is the most manageable natural resources as it is
capable of diversion, transport, storage, and recycling (Kumar, Singh, & Sharma, 2005). Water
supply management consists of production, treatment or water quality control, distribution and
consumption.
The hygienic of water supply during flood events is difficult to achieve if there is no
systematic management to ensure the clean water is distributed continuously especially in
flood evacuation centers. This possibly due to the water need for domestic uses such as
washing, bathing, drinking, cooking in flood evacuation centers by the effected victims. Flood
disaster not only deteriorate the economy of the flood victims, but it also pose a negative
impact on water resources. Some negative effects of the floods are damaging agricultural
production, livestocks, infrastructure facilities as roads, bridges, irrigation systems, flood
control structures and loss of life (Lawal et al., 2006; Ibrahim, 2007) as well as water supply.
According to PAHO (2002), there are five main impact of floods on water supply system namely
(i) destruction of the whole or part of the river water intake, (ii) damage to the water pumping
station, (iii) blocked components due to sediment deposition, (iv) loss of water intake area due
to changes in the flow of rivers and streams, and (v) pollute or reduce the availability of
groundwater.
Issues and problem of water supply during flood disaster
Water sources contamination
Contamination of water resources is a main problem in supplying water during floods. It can
affect both surface (river) and groundwater. For the surface water resources, increased surface
runoff during floods often turned rivers and streams murky due to the presence of sediment
and suspended solid. In 2014, Kelantan was shocked by extreme flood events and have cause
rivers become murky. This because the rush of water in the high regions flow down and carried
along huge quantity of sediment (Wan Nur Tasnim, Nor Hidayati, & Mohammad Nazir, 2015).
This flood event called “yellow flood” because of the flood water yellowish brown with high
sediment contents. Groundwater quality will also deteriorate due to contaminate flood water
which contains heavy metals. According to the studies carried out by Tawari-Fufeyin, Paul, and
Godleads, (2015); Mackay and Taylor, (2013); Pardue et al. (2005) on flood water quality
assessment study show that most of the flood water were contaminated with heavy metals
such as chromium, copper and zinc. This situation will expose flood victims vulnerable to water
pollution with high concentration of toxic contaminants. As reported by Nayan et al. (2016),
exposure to heavy metals cause serious health effects including disrupting human growth
system, cancer, organ damage, nervous system damage, and in extreme cases it can be fatal or
death. Generally, the impact of flood on water sources quality are (i) inundation of water
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resource by contaminated flood water, (ii) disruption of access to clean water resources and (iii)
deteriorated water quality due to pollution and high level of bacteriological contamination
(Shimi, Parvin, Biswas, & Shaw, 2010; Speranza, 2010).
Water scarcity
During flood event, most of the clean water sources will submerged and results clean water
become scarce (Bariweni, Tawari, & Abowei, 2012). The victims will experience a shortage of
clean water during floods. The water supply problem will get worsens when a large and
prolonged floods happen because it will led to an increase in the number of victims then
resulting in high demand for clean water in flood evacuation centers. This situation causes
victims to experience scarcity of clean water to accommodate a large number of flood victims.
The longer the flood period, the longer victims are encountering water problems. March (2002)
stated that, loss of clean water resources is a worst long-term effects when disaster occurs and
will affect domestic activities in flood evacuation centers.
Waterborne diseases outbreak
Due to shortage of water during flood, victims have to use flood water with poor grade quality
for domestic activities such as cooking, bathing and drinking. The use of contaminated flood
water will affect the victims health and increase the risk of the spreading of water-borne
diseases. This is due to the difficulties in obtaining clean drinking water during flood (Bariweni,
Tawari, & Abowei, 2012; Shimi et al., 2010). As reported by Shimi et al. (2010), floods in
Bangladesh in 2004 have caused 25 percent of the households used the surrounding flood
water with or even without any purification and have caused contamination of various water-
borne diseases. Water-borne diseases includes malaria, cholera, eye diseases, diarrhoea,
typhoid, skin diseases etc.. The flood affected peoples in Bangladesh are highly vulnerable to
water-borne disease during flood such as diarrhoea, dysentery, fever, jaundice, eye and skin
infection, etc. and there are very common during all previous floods (Shimi et al., 2010).
Leptospirosis is an endemic disease in Malaysia as reported by Benacer et al. (2016). It might
have serious adverse impacts on the health of all ages group.
Water treatment facilities disruption
Floods might also caused damage on water supply facilities such as water pumps and water
treatment equipments (McCluskey, 2001). As discussed by Sharad, Pushpendra and Vijay
(2007); Abbas and Routray (2014); Linscott (2007); Shimi et al. (2010); Mahmood (2004), floods
not only affect water resources, but also affect the water supply facilities and damage water
treatment plant equipment. The damage has led to water supply systems interruption because
the system has been flooded. As a result, clean water are not reachable to the flood victims.
According to Rahman, Haque, Khan, Salehin and Bala (2005); M. Shah (2008), prolonged flood
could also damage the water treatment facilities. If the water supply facilities was severely
damaged, maintenance work will take a long time to restore the system.
Table 1 shows the case studies carried out by previous researchers on the water supply
issues during floods events. The review shows that every floods event will trigger similar water
International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences
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supply problems to all countries such as water sources contamination, water scarcity, water-
borne diseases outbreak and water treatment facilities disruption.
Table 1: Issues of water supply during floods according to the case studies
Area
Flood event
(year)
Issues
Source
Kelantan,
Malaysia
2014
Contaminated water sources high
sediment content in water
Shaharudin, Nik Ab Rahman,
Syakir, Tajul Arifin, & Ab.
Kadir (2017)
Kota Bharu,
Kelantan,
Malaysia
2010/2011
Waterborne diseases outbreak
Mohammad Muqtada, Nor
Ashikin, Arham Muchtar, &
Md Azizul (2014)
Johor
2006/2007
Contaminated water bodies with
high conductivity and suspended
solids
Lee, Salmijah, Liew, &
Tangang (2012)
Outbreak of Leptospirosis disease
Badrul Hashim, Norli, &
Adam Gaeshraj (2010)
Malaysia
2004-2012
Contaminated water bodies
Damage the water and sanitation
networks
Contaminated safe drinking water
Waterborne disease - Leptospirosis
outbreak
Benacer et al. (2016)
Bangkok,
Thailand
2011
Waterborne diseases outbreaks
Disruption of water treatment
facilities
Contamination of water supply
Molla, Sangsanont,
Thayanukul, & Furumai
(2016)
Darbhanga
District, Bihar
State, India
2010
Contaminated the local water supply
Waterborne diseases outbreak
Kumar, Cheng, & Singh
(2016)
Bhuapur,
Bangladesh
2007
Drinking water sources are often
contaminated
Damage to water supply
infrastructure
Loss of safe water accessibility
Scarcity of portable water
Hossain, Juani, Shams,
Rokonujjaman, & Shafiuddin
(2014)
Isoko South,
Nigeria
2012
Waterborne diseases outbreak
Ubachukwu & Emeribe
(2017)
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Challenges to overcome the water supply problem
Lack of clean water during flood is the worst problem that faced by the flood victims,
particularly those in flood evacuation centers. Without potable water, it will cause the vistims
health are affected seriously and could reduce their ability to carry out daily activities. There
are many challenges to overcome the problems during floods. Lack of access to clean water is a
major challenge because most of the water sources have been contaminated by flood water
and not suitable for domestic uses, especially drinking. In addition, contaminated water
resources with high sediment and suspended solid will complicate the water treatment process
because of high turbidity make it impossible to treat water properly. According to Lala and Lala
(2006), water which has smell and bad taste is polluted water and contains microorganisms.
Hence, appropriate water treatment is needed to remove disease-causing agents before use.
Hossain et al. (2014) stressed that accessibility for potable water also a major challenge
during flood due to road damage. Extreme flood events might cause considerable damage on
the existing transportation network. According to Othman and Hamid (2014), a disaster climate
such as flood causes the road operation and environment to worsen and also affect the road
facilities as well as vehicle safety. As a result, flood victims would lost their contact with
authorities. Eventually, potable water could not reach the flood victims. The process of
restoration of water supply facilities is a challenge to the water suppliers after flood. Due to the
extreme flood occurred, will be badly affectted. This situation will cause the repairing water
treatment plant will take a long time to resume and delay in providing water to affectted
residents after the floods.
In term of health, the insistence water shortage has caused the victims to use water of
unknown sanitary status while most water sources are polluted. This condition causes the
victim vulnerable to various diseases and will increase the number of patients who need urgent
treatment during flood. Yet, floods will reduce access to health service and can cause changes
in the demand in health services (Kumar et al., 2016). Besides that, shortage of staff also is
another challenge for hospitals if a major flood occurs. As reported by Kamarul Aryffin et al.
(2015), there are almost 50 per cent of the staff from Emergency Department were affected by
the floods during the floods in 2014 in Kelantan. Besides that, the flood also given a distressing
trauma to victims as they had lost their homes, jobs, properties, livestock and cut off contact
with the outside world (Shaharudin et al., 2017).
Conclusion
Flood is one of the natural disasters that left many negative impacts on residents who live in
flood-prone areas. Other than causing destruction on properties and plant, it also cause
disruption on water supply. As a result, people faced the problem of water resources
contamination, water scarcity, water-borne disease outbreaks and water facilities discruption.
This paper has briefly reviewed water supply issues during flood and challenges to resolve the
issues. The intergrated management and planning are needed to ensure continuous water
supply reaching the flood victims. Since the flood is unpredictable, the management of water
supply during flood is very important to ensure the affected populations will receive clean and
safe water for domestic uses. All governments, non-government agencies and the public must
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concentrate their efforts in improving the efficiency of the water supply management during
floods by overcoming the issues and problems.
Corresponding Author
Koh Liew See
Department of Geography & Environment,
Faculty of Human Sciences,
Sultan Idris Education University,
35900 Tanjong Malim, Perak, Malaysia.
E-mail: liew_see89@hotmail.my
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... Flooding provides the ideal environment for bacterial proliferation due to temporary water accumulation, contamination of drinking water, which is a plausible route of transmission, and possible disruption of routine health facilities, leading to poor or delayed health services [61]. Water supply issues related to flooding, such as contamination of water resources, scarcity of safe drinking water, outbreaks of waterborne disease, and disruption of water treatment facilities, suggest that water supply management during flooding should be carried out efficiently and systematically to ensure adequate and safe water supply for flood victims [96]. ...
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Flood risk has increased distressingly, and the incidence of waterborne diseases, such as diarrhoeal diseases from bacteria, has been reported to be high in flood-prone areas. This study aimed to evaluate the flood risk patterns and the plausible application of flow cytometry (FCM) as a method of assessment to understand the relationship between flooding and waterborne diseases in Malaysia. Thirty years of secondary hydrological data were analysed using chemometrics to determine the flood risk patterns. Water samples collected at Kuantan River were analysed using FCM for bacterial detection and live/dead discrimination. The water level variable had the strongest factor loading (0.98) and was selected for the Flood Risk Index (FRI) model, which revealed that 29.23% of the plotted data were high-risk, and 70.77% were moderate-risk. The viability pattern of live bacterial cells was more prominent during the monsoon season compared to the non-monsoon season. The live bacterial population concentration was significantly higher in the midstream (p < 0.05) during the monsoon season (p < 0.01). The flood risk patterns were successfully established based on the water level control limit. The viability of waterborne bacteria associated with the monsoon season was precisely determined using FCM. Effective flood risk management is mandatory to prevent outbreaks of waterborne diseases.
... Besides that, prolonged flooding will also disrupt and damage the water treatment facilities, and thus, longer maintenance time is needed to restore and repair the water supply facilities. Furthermore, road damage and high-water level are the main causes of clean water supply disruption as the roads in flooding areas have become inaccessible (See, Nayan, and Rahaman 2017). ...
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... Flooding can affect well fields and result in pump failure and/or ingress of chemically/microbiologically contaminated flood water into damaged wells (Joannou et al. 2019;Sweya and Wilkinson 2020). It can cause damages also to the treatment component producing interruption of the treatment/water quality control (Hedera 1987;McCluskey 2001;Barnes et al. 2012;Koh et al. 2017). Lastly, flooding can affect the distribution system damaging the infrastructures leading to disruption of the supply service and contamination of the water resources (Arrighi et al. 2017;Joannou et al. 2019). ...
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Nowadays, water pollution has become a global issue affecting most countries in the world. Water quality should be monitored to alert authorities on water pollution, so that action can be taken quickly. The objective of the review is to study various conventional and modern methods of monitoring water quality to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the methods. The methods include the Internet of Things (IoT), virtual sensing, cyber-physical system (CPS), and optical techniques. In this review, water quality monitoring systems and process control in several countries, such as New Zealand, China, Serbia, Bangladesh, Malaysia, and India, are discussed. Conventional and modern methods are compared in terms of parameters, complexity, and reliability. Recent methods of water quality monitoring techniques are also reviewed to study any loopholes in modern methods. We found that CPS is suitable for monitoring water quality due to a good combination of physical and computational algorithms. Its embedded sensors, processors, and actuators can be designed to detect and interact with environments. We believe that conventional methods are costly and complex, whereas modern methods are also expensive but simpler with real-time detection. Traditional approaches are more time-consuming and expensive due to the high maintenance of laboratory facilities, involve chemical materials, and are inefficient for on-site monitoring applications. Apart from that, previous monitoring methods have issues in achieving a reliable measurement of water quality parameters in real time. There are still limitations in instruments for detecting pollutants and producing valuable information on water quality. Thus, the review is important in order to compare previous methods and to improve current water quality assessments in terms of reliability and cost-effectiveness.
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The study investigated the socio-economic impacts of the 2012 flooding in the riverine areas Isoko south Local Government area, Delta State. Two communities Oleh and Aviara which were greatly affected by the flood event were selected for the study. Both purposive and simple random sampling techniques were adopted in the survey. A total of two hundred questionnaire were distributed to household heads, famers, community and religious leaders, one hundred per community. Impacts on building/household property, financial cost of damage, impact on small farm holders, damage on school infrastructures, diseases distributed were used as impact indicators. The study showed that displacement of family members for a period of 3-4months recorded the highest impact with Oleh and Aviara communities scoring impact level of 34% and 36.6% respectively. This was followed by submergence of farmland/lost of valuable household property, 27.7% in Oleh community and 23.6% Aviara community. Death/major injury during the flood event recorded least impact of 8.5% in Oleh and 3.2% in Aviara communities. On the average these impacts were valued at between one and two million naira (N). Analysis of impact on small farm holders showed that monthly income groups between
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The study aims are to investigate the people perception on flood response, flood awareness and information dissemination during 2011 flood, to discuss the proper information needed for flood preparedness, and to understand drinking water preferences during emergency periods. A questionnaire survey was conducted to collect information on flood awareness and preparedness from the people residing in a suburb of Bangkok that was one of the most severely affected areas. Results showed that more than 90% of public realized the necessity of flood awareness. Flood risk perception level was positively correlated with age. There were gender differrences in priority flood responses; males were more concerned about electrocution while women were more concerned over damage to household property. More than 40% of respondents gave lower priority to electricity cutoffs during the flood. This perception of knowledge could lead to life-threatening damage. Television was found to be the most effective channel for disseminating flood information (58%) due to its reliability, transparency, and promptness. However, its popularity was slightly reduced during flood, most likely due to electricity shortages. For the younger generation, TV and internet are the most powerful tools, while older people rely on many channels including radio and pamphlet, so that messages need to be disseminated through many channels in combination. Information on flood severity, asset protection, water supply, food supply, health information, and shelter was concerned before and during flood. Bottled water was the main alternate water source (70%). The findings of this study provide basic guidance to the authorities concerned to assist in developing effective policies and plans to minimize the impacts of future floods.
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Floods are considered an annual natural disaster in Kelantan. However, the record-setting flood of 2014 was a 'tsunami-like disaster'. Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia was the only fully functioning hospital in the state and had to receive and manage cases from the hospitals and clinics throughout Kelantan. The experiences, challenges, and recommendations resulting from this disaster are highlighted from an emergency medicine perspective so that future disaster preparedness is truly a preparation. The history of how the health campus was constructed with the collaboration of Perunding Alam Bina and Perkins and Willis of Chicago is elaborated.
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Drinking Water Quality This textbook provides a comprehensive review of the problems associated withthe supply of drinking water in the developed world. Since the fi rst edition of this book was published there have been enormous changes in the water industry, especially in the way drinking water is perceived and regulated.Water companies and regulators have been presented with numerous newchallenges – global warming has seriously affected the sustainability of water supplies as well as impacting water quality; advances in chemical and microbialanalysis have revealed many new contaminants in water that were previouslyundetectable or unknown; and recent terrorist attacks have demonstrated howvulnerable water supplies could be to contamination or disruption. This newedition is an overview of the current and emerging problems, and what can bedone to solve them. It has been completely updated, and includes the new WHORevised Drinking Water Guidelines. Drinking Water Quality is an ideal textbook for courses in environmentalscience, hydrology, environmental health, and environmental engineering. It also provides an authoritative reference for practitioners and professionals in thewater supply industry. http://www.scribd.com/doc/56886590/Drinking-Water-Quality-Problems-Solutions-Gray#scribd
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In recent times, flooding has been a recurrent problem in most parts of the world. In Nigeria, there exist reports of flooding in some towns and cities during heavy downpours but none compares with the flood under review. Flood waters from Cameroun entered Nigeria through the Benue River, into the River Niger on its way to the sea. Lots of physical damages were recorded, including destruction of farmlands and houses. Economic life was halted, people displaced and some lost their lives. Although Cameroun released water from the Ladja dam between July 2nd and September 17th 2012, the waters remained in the Niger delta communities up till November 2012. In this study, towns were chosen from Bayelsa and Delta states for evaluation of the effects of the flood waters. Some physical and chemical parameters were determined, using standard methods. The results revealed that in all the communities, the flood waters were slightly acidic (5.4 – 6.9) and dissolved oxygen was high (3.9 – 6.9mg/l). The heavy metal Chromium was also high. Most of the physical and chemical parameters analyzed were higher in flood water than in Borehole and River Water but generally within allowable limits. Other challenges faced by the people included loss of houses, ponds, farmlands, traditional grounds and means of livelihood, destruction of herbs and vegetation, exposure to wild animals. Wild animals were not spared as their natural habitats were destroyed. Consequently some died, most migrated while some took shelter in abandoned houses. There was an imbalance in the ecosystem and general pollution of the affected communities. The inhabitants of the communities possibly benefitted from some positive aspects of the flood as skill acquisition centres, drugs and food were provided. There was evidence of cooperation and togetherness within the temporary camps erected for victims.
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Bangladesh is a riverine country and frequently affected by floods. Depending on location and sanitation conditions, drinking water sources are often contaminated during flood and many waterborne diseases like dysentery, diarrhea, typhoid etc. spread out. This research investigates potable water and sanitation condition in a flood affected area at Bhuapur in Tangail, Bangladesh. The various parameters such as colour (25 TCU), turbidity (128 NTU), total coliform (1800/100 ml) and faecal coliform (80/100 ml) for raw water collected from Halda river and during flood is much higher as compared to the Bangladesh standard limit. It is recommended that fabricated biosand filter should be used at flood prone area because it can significantly remove impurities such as turbidity over 95.28% and 87.82% for Halda river and flooded tubewell water respectively. The test results for other parameters like colour, total and faecal coliform have been compared with WHO guide lines and Bangladesh standards and found within the acceptable limits. Besides, alternative sanitary latrines have also been suggested to protect sanitation during flood.