Our November Floods Prove That We Need Stronger Sustainability Governance

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CONTINUOUS heavy rainfall between Nov 23 and 24 triggered widespread flooding across several Malaysian states. This exposes the country’s growing vulnerability to climate-driven disasters.
While Kelantan experienced the earliest and most severe impacts, several other states including Perlis, Kedah, Penang, Perak, Terengganu and Selangor, also reported flooding.
What began as a localised monsoon event quickly escalated into a multi-state crisis. The escalation forces us to ask: are Malaysia’s flood patterns evolving more rapidly than our capacity to respond?
As of the morning of Nov 24, over 10,000 individuals were affected by flooding across seven states, with Kelantan reporting more than 8,200 evacuees. In Perlis, five schools designated as Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) examination centres faced disruptions, leading to the relocation of 393 candidates.
Urban areas in Kedah, Penang and Perak saw repeated flash floods as stormwater systems struggled to cope with continuous downpours. The Klang Valley was similarly affected, with sudden floods turning major roads in Shah Alam, Klang, Petaling Jaya and parts of Kuala Lumpur into rivers, stranding commuters and forcing businesses to close.
Despite water levels receding quickly, damages to vehicles and businesses, along with logistical challenges, were significant.
The floods revealed an uncomfortable truth that Malaysia is entering a new climate reality driven by environmental degradation, urbanisation and underinvestment in infrastructure. This reality carries direct implications for national competitiveness, organisational resilience and the country’s broader sustainability agenda.
(Image: Bernama)From a business and accounting perspective, short-duration floods impose long-tail economic costs. Vehicle repairs run into thousands of ringgit. Micro-enterprises lose a full day’s revenue. Supply chains face delays.
Workers unable to commute reduce productivity, particularly in the Klang Valley. For government agencies, service continuity is disrupted, as seen in Perlis, where flood-affected routes temporarily halted operations for state authorities.
These costs rarely make headlines, yet they accumulate significantly across households, companies and public-sector budgets.
Floods, therefore, are not simply environmental events, but are financial and operational risks that both public and private sectors must treat with greater seriousness.
Environmental sustainability lies at the heart of this challenge. The November floods were intensified not only by persistent rainfall but also by decades of weakening natural flood buffers.
Deforestation, hillslope development and clogged drainage have undermined the land’s ability to absorb excess water. When heavy rain meets fragile ecosystems and ageing infrastructure, floods develop quickly and with outsized consequences.
The climatic factor cannot be ignored. Meteorological data shows increasingly unpredictable rainfall patterns in recent years. As temperatures rise, the atmosphere retains more moisture, producing longer and more intense rain episodes.
The recent floods reflects this trend, where rainfall that once would have been manageable cascaded into widespread flooding because the environment and infrastructure around our cities have fundamentally changed.
The floods also highlighted growing social vulnerabilities. Families in Perlis and Kedah spent nights in evacuation centres as floodwaters swept through their neighbourhoods.
Students preparing for examinations faced disruptions as some schools shifted into emergency-response roles. While SPM candidates were ultimately able to proceed with their exams, the situation renewed public concern about educational continuity during climate events.
For lower-income households, the recovery from floods is especially difficult. Damaged vehicles, lost income from daily wages and the lack of financial buffers worsen post-flood hardship. This positions flood risk as both a sustainability concern and a matter of social equity.
Underlying all these problems is a persistent governance gap. Malaysia’s flood management remains reactive rather than preventive, according to a 2023 study. Local authorities often struggle with enforcement of land-use rules, while outdated drainage systems suffer from insufficient maintenance.
Coordination between federal, state and municipal agencies can be uneven too. Flood-mitigation projects frequently face delays or lack transparency, eroding public confidence.

Governance, the “G” in ESG, is the foundation upon which environmental and social strategies succeed or fail. Weak governance undermines flood mitigation, inflates public-sector costs and exposes businesses to unnecessary losses. To attract sustainability-minded investors, Malaysia must demonstrate strong governance.
The private sector also plays a critical role. The November floods showed that ESG is not merely a reporting requirement but a risk-management framework.
Under IFRS S1 and S2 and Bursa Malaysia’s latest sustainability reporting standards, companies must identify physical climate risks, assess their financial impacts and disclose how these risks are governed and mitigated.
Floods threaten assets, logistics, customer access and workforce safety. Companies lacking robust continuity plans put their operations and financial performance at risk.
This calls for a paradigm shift: sustainability must be incorporated into enterprise risk management rather than regarded as a mere compliance exercise. To minimise operational disruption, businesses should map flood risks across their facilities, supply chains, and transportation routes.
They should also improve their emergency procedures, build infrastructure that can withstand floods and use digital early-warning systems.
At the national level, Malaysia urgently needs a flood-risk strategy aligned with long-term sustainability principles.
This includes upgrading drainage networks to match current rainfall intensity, restoring natural flood buffers such as mangroves and wetlands, enforcing climate-informed land-use policies and ensuring transparency in flood-mitigation spending.
Schools, government agencies and private employers must adopt structured flood SOPs to ensure continuity of essential services.
As climate volatility increases, the question is no longer whether floods will occur. Malaysia will continue to face heavy monsoon seasons and intense rainfall. The real question is whether the country’s public and private sectors will strengthen their sustainability and risk-management frameworks quickly enough to prevent recurring disruptions.
Floods may be natural phenomena, but preventable disasters are not. The floods serve as a warning that Malaysia’s resilience depends on far more than emergency response. It requires governance discipline, environmental stewardship and business-driven risk management rooted in sustainability.
If Malaysia wants its economy and society to be stable in the long term, it needs to treat sustainability as a strategic goal, not just a catchphrase. The next heavy rainfall will come. It is time to get ready in terms of structure, institutions and money.
Dr Dalilawati Zainal is a senior lecturer at the Department of Accounting, Faculty of Business and Economics, Universiti Malaya.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of  MMKtT.
- Focus Malaysia.

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