Malaysia is known as a country with tropical region which only have two seasons throughout the year which are rainy and sunny seasons. The monsoon seasons in Malaysia can be divided into two categories which are the Northeast monsoon season occurs in November - February and the Southwest monsoon season occurs in May - August (Wong,1981). The east coast of Peninsular Malaysia is the most pity region because the northeast monsoon season is very strong at east coast of Peninsular Malaysia where the amount of storms and rains it brings is more compared to southwest monsoon season(Wong,1981). Although serious problems have arisen as a result of this, there are solutions.
The major impact of monsoon seasons arrival to the surrounding is flood (Fox, 2015). The continuous raining during monsoon seasons will increase the amount river runoff which eventually will caused the flood (Ang, 2015). For instance, that tragedy that happened in Kelantan last year during the northeast monsoon season period, 90% of the local residents' properties, houses, cars and others was totally damaged by the flood. Besides that, this monsoons arrival also can give a negative impact to the fisheries activity in Malaysia. Fishermen with small boat are restricted for fishing on sea due to bad weather during monsoon season (Omar & Quah, 2005). Fishing activity is the major income for the fisherman's family, just imagine their situation during the monsoon!! Nevertheless, the other impact of monsoon is the coastal erosion along the beach especially to the east coast Peninsular Malaysia's beach. The beach in east coast of Peninsular Malaysia is directly exposed to strong waves during the northeast monsoon wind which also washed off the sand from the shore (Wong,1981).
Since serious problems of monsoon have arisen, as a results of this the solution to overcome the flood disaster is by intensifying the poor drainage system in Malaysia (Toriman & Mokhtar,2012). It seems to be that the drainage system is not intensive enough to control flooding as it could not support the current development of cities across the Malaysia (Ahmad and Spykerman,2014). Next, the only solution for those fisherman that cant carry on their work that is fishing, should get a temporary job such as develop a small bussiness of fish crackers or become a skilled worker during the monsoon seasons' arrival (Yee et al., 2007). This ideas is just to replace the income that gain from the fishing activity. Lastly, it is important that action is taken to combat the coastal erosion problem along the beach of east coast Peninsular Malaysia.Governments should ensure that adequate legislation and controls are in place so that will prevent the coastal erosion, activities like sand filling and building of revetment along the coastline can be done (Sharifah, 1992). In conjunction, revetments are sloping structures placed on banks or cliffs in such a way as to absorb the energy of incoming water as it can protect the beach shore from strong waves.
To conclude, monsoon is a natural phenomena that occurs mostly in Southeast Asian countries. Understanding the ways and predicting changing trends of monsoon may be central to managing the floods, coastal erosion problem and restriction of fishing activities on ocean that gives impact on millions of people. However, with the right action by individuals and governments, it can be made a safe place for everyone in Malaysia during monsoon seasons.
References:
1. Wong, P. P. (1981). Beach changes on a monsoon coast, Peninsular Malaysia. Geol. Soc. Malaysia, bulletin 14, 59-74.
2.Fox, E. India’s Monsoon Flood lingers on. Retrived from http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/09/india-monsoon-floods-linger-150906102350478.html
3. Ang, K. H. (2015). An adaptation of Kota Bharu community towards monsoon flood. International Research Journal of Interdisciplinary & Multidisciplinary Studies, vol. I, issue VII, 99-107.
4. Omar, Y. and Quah, P. C. (2005). Weather downtime and its effect on fishing operation in Peninsular Malaysia. Journal Technology, 42(A), 13-26.
5. Toriman, M. E. and Mokhtar, M. (2012). Irrigation: types, sources and problems in Malaysia. Irrigation System and Practices in Challenging Environments. InTech. Retrieved on 3 Dec 2015 from:http://www.intechopen.com/books/irrigation-systems-and-practices-in challengingenvironments/irrigation-types-sources-and-problems-in-malaysia
6.Ahmad, R and Spykerman, N. Poor Drainage Causing Floods in KL.Retrieved at 2.39 pm. 3 Dec 2015 from http://www.thestar.com.my/News/Nation/2014/10/17/Poor-drainage-causing-floods-KLs-system-not-up-to-par-with-development-says-Cetdem/
7.Yee, B.H., Squires, D., Ibrahim, K., Gjertsen, H., Syarifah, K.S.M.K., Zulkifli, K., Groves, T., Hong, M.C., and Tan, C.H. (2007). Fisher profiles and perceptions of sea turtle-fishery interactions: case study of East Coast Peninsular Malaysia. Penang: The World Fish Center
8. Sharifah, M. S. A. (1992). Background paper on the coastal zone in Malaysia: process, issues and management plan. Malaysian National Conservation Strategy. Kuala Lumpur: Economic Planning Unit.
