Kota Tinggi District.

Kota Tinggi is located on the east of Johor state in Malaysia. Almost 65% of Kota Tinggi is surrounded by sea water. It was an area where water flows into a river or in other word river basin. One of the most fast developed areas, Kota Tinggi faces some of cases of floods. From data that been recorded for the past 60 years, flooding was the common events happened between December and early January.Tidal effect was one of the culprit for these flooding. Monsoon period was when the storm hit South China Sea, and part of Johor might get some stormy rain. A number of places have been identify to have series of flooding. These areas including Bandar Kota Tinggi, Kg Sg Telur, Kg Tembiuh, Batu 1 Jalan Mawai, Taman Mawai, Kg Sg Berangan, Kg Semangar Dalam, Kg Semangar Luar, Kg Jawa, Kg Kelantan, Kg Sg Sembilang, Kg Sri Jaya, Kg Rantau Panjang, Kg Panti and Kg Batu Empat. The land around Kota Tinggi are rich in the soil, making it the land of agricultural and developed very rapidly in such a time. Johor River acts as the main drainage system Kota Tinggi and there are few small rivers that flow through the town. There are Sg Permadi, Sg Kemang, Sg Kg Kelantan, Sg Bang, Sg Tembiuh , Sg Damar. Remind that these rivers were only small river, and it can’t capacitate any large amounts of water.

Rapid urbanization has its own price. For starters, the water drainage system becomes less and less manageable. More infrastructures are built to facilitate people. Consequently, the water pipes and ways are getting tangle up, without any plan to unwind the mess. The flock of people to the town had made the housing area larger and to attain large area of housing, the drains must be enough for all. Surprisingly, the drains are inadequate in Kota Tinggi town for water to flow into the river. Worsen it more was that the garbage pollution that arises from the rapid urbanization causing clogged drains. The impact of clogged drains, inadequate drains, unplanned infrastructure, plus low land elevation are the reason of flooding as we have seen in recent years in Kota Tinggi.

However we cannot put the blame on rapid urbanization only. We have to look the other factors such as heavy rainfall that occur in December. This heavy rainfall, if lasted till few weeks can lead to massive flooding. Bandar Kota Tinggi is a low elevation land, where it was like a bowl. The water from the heavy rainfall will accumulate in that area without much time to flow back into the river.

To conclude this, I think that we must take care of our nature. Nature has given out all of its tressure and gives it to us. But now we exploit it with so much destruction. If we still didn’t manage the development of a certain area, the wrath of Mother Nature will bring us down. So, authorities, government, and also society mush take the responsibilities to manage our environment. Back to the old saying: prevention is better than cure.