KUALA LUMPUR: As temperatures soar throughout the country, the Climate Emergency Coalition of Malaysia wants the government to treat the phenomenon as a visible impact of the climate emergency.
The coalition said the government must come up with heatwave action plans and conduct vulnerability assessments in a bid to ensure the safety and wellbeing of the people and protect the most vulnerable.
According to the Malaysian Meteorological Department (MetMalaysia), Pahang and Sarawak recorded the highest temperatures at 36 degrees while Perlis was at 35 degrees as of 9.37am today.
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Citing the deaths of two young children in Kelantan due to alleged heatstroke, the coalition said the losses showed the severity of the situation and the pressing need to take swift action.
"We call on the authorities to ensure that heatwave action plans are a national collaborative effort that fully includes a long-term heatwave response plan, community-based disaster risk reduction and management, as well as mechanisms prioritising human rights and wellbeing.
"Heatwave vulnerability assessments must be prioritised and treated with the same urgency as flood risks. It is crucial to go beyond merely closing school.
"Longer term resilience planning, grounded in human rights, is essential," it said in a statement endorsed by 12 organisations and a group of 15 people.
The organisations included the Alliance of River Three, Cerah Anti-Haze Action Coalition, Dapur Jalanan Kuala Lumpur, Klima Action Malaysia, Sahabat Alam Malaysia and Youths United for Earth.
The government, it added, should establish an official National Statistics Database that comprehensively discloses short and long term climate change-related impacts on health.
The database, which should be freely accessible, should include deaths, injuries, mental health, as well as property and farmland losses, crop failure and natural resource degradation, as well as gender disaggregated data points and include records dating back to 2018.
The coalition said the National Adaptation Plan (MyNAP) which addresses climate impacts effectively to protect and empower vulnerable group, as well as the Climate Change Act and Disaster Act should be expedited.