Hills cut, dams burst and a horrendous mud flood!

Published on: Sunday, September 26, 2021

By: Kan Yaw Chong

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Landslides on rubber terraces in Sg Sugud catchment area. (Drone pictures by Philip Chin)

NOW we know exactly what happened in Sugud: Hills cut, landslides, headwaters upstream choked, dams burst, suddenly unleashing the “worst ever” catastrophic mud flood that filled numerous houses with mud and sand on September 15.

The catastrophic event destroyed everything inside the houses, swept cars into the rivers – saddening everyone with utter despair and an overwhelming sense of loss.

Prof Dr Felix Tongkul, a geologist and Research Fellow at the Natural Disaster Research Centre, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, investigated what caused the unprecedented disaster.

“This is a classic example of an environmental disaster due to disturbed water catchments,” he concluded after three site visits to trouble-shoot for the cause.

“The mud flood is related to numerous landslides in the Sugud catchment areas,” he noted.

“Some of the landslides blocked the Sugud River, resulting in the formation of what I call ‘temporary dams’ upstream. Under the heavy pressure of a relentless deluge, these dams broke later, resulting in a massive mud flood and debris flow that caught everybody by surprise and unprepared,” Prof Tongkul explained.

Did the heavy deluge trigger the numerous landslides?

“Yes correct.”

“The extremely heavy rains, lasting nearly four hours, pounded the catchments of Sungai Sugud and Sungai Maang with more than 100mm (4 inches) of downpours, triggering the landslides and mud flood,” Prof Tongkul said.

“The problem is most of the water catchment areas have been opened for rubber and fruit trees. The hill cutting and terracing on extremely steep slopes has been ongoing for the last 10 years. This I think has contributed to the numerous landslides,” Tongkul said.

Behind the catastrophe – extra heat power from global warming

Beyond a very saddening local drama, this Sugud flood horror rings an alarm bell on a much bigger matter of concern Sabahans should start taking a serious interest now – global warming – the blistering heat that evaporates more and more water, sends bigger and bigger clouds to the sky where it stays a maximum of just nine days and then pour down a gargantuan amount of unwelcomed water in the wrong places.

Yes, water vapour, which is itself a big greenhouse gas that traps heat like CO2, once risen to the atmosphere, has a short-lived residence time of a week to nine days and then comes crashing down, water cycle experts say.

The intensity and frequency of such deluge of late should not elude our notice, drowning people, cars floundered as they tried cross raging torrents, flooding a sea of areas, submerging large number houses and cars around KK recurring every three other weeks or so, stranding people from going to work, followed by massive clean ups.

These are tell-tale impacts of climate change and global warming miseries.

So as Sugud folks mourned these unspeakable losses, SESB complained they have lost millions to floods and as Daily Express reported yesterday, even the dead cannot Rest In Peace now when graves crashed down in slope failure.

All these destruction are piling up against us in regular fashion across the range.

Rising heat trapper CO2 – From 270ppm to 417ppm in 2021

Experts blame it all on the relentless addition of industrial CO2 – a terrific “heat absorber” or “heat trapper” in faster and greater amounts than any carbon sink can soak it up and this huge extra atmospheric heat energy and power gained each day is driving the weather crazy.

Yes, we need the tiny 0.04pc

concentration of CO2 and a nicely warm earth it provides for life to thrive. The Sun’s heat is found in its infrared wavelength which CO2 absorbs to give us the warmth.

However, too much C02 which keeps rising out of control is clearly a serious matter of concern for all and the Government should take a lead in that interest, because we can see the trend of its trail of destruction.

From 270ppm (parts per million) concentration measured in pre industrial revolution year 1770, CO2 levels surpassed the 400ppm in 2013 – the first time in a million years they say and quickly hit 417ppm this year – 2021, all from burning of fossil fuels!

The tipping point, experts say, is 450ppm, a point of no return, awashing earth in enormous heat and weather

extremes like what happened in Sugud.

The warning is, if humans continue to burn fossil fuels to the exhaustion of its carbon reserves, CO2 levels can continue to rise to staggering levels of 1,500ppm, when the atmosphere would then not return to pre-industrial levels even tens of thousands of years.

Prof Hanson dramatises power behind crazy floods: Like exploding 400,000 Hiroshima atomic bombs everyday

In the meantime, how much extra heat energy have been added to the

atmosphere since the industrial revolution begun?

According to famed climatologist, Prof James Hanson, we are adding an equivalent of exploding 400,000

Hiroshima-sized atomic bombs every day, 365 days a year, in extra heat

energy!

That was 2010 when CO2 level was about 390ppm when Prof Hanson gave a Ted talk.

What about now – year 2021 when CO2 level had risen to 417ppm?

How much extra heat energy are we adding to the atmosphere now?

It could be equivalent to exploding 500,000 Hiroshima-sized atomic bombs every day, 365 days a year – a rapidly worsening heat energy imbalance,

driving up worse and worse floods!

Dramatising how much hotter Earth is getting everyday with the use of the atomic bomb analogy, Prof Hanson has made a complex subject very clear and easy to understand why floods are getting worse each day.

He explains: “Because warmer air holds not only more water vapours with its latent energy rainfall will

become more extreme events. There will be stronger storms and greater flooding.”

That captures the power behind the catastrophic mud flood disaster in Sugud – “the worst ever!”

The chase for better economic and livelihood of Sugud folks is perfectly

understandable but on the other hand, free flow cutting of steep hills in water catchments to do agriculture is really unwise as it amplifies the power of extra heat energy from global warming to deal the community a shocking blow.