Assessing and propagating workers safety and health in flood disaster: an exploratory study in the Perlis, Northern Malaysia

Abstract

Flood disasters that hit Kedah, Terengganu, Kelantan, Pahang and Johore States of Malaysia recently were due to unusual weather conditions. One of the major cause of the flood in the aforesaid states is the continuously non stop raining for between 3 to 4 days has risen the river water level. The unprecedented rising of the water level has brought about floods. In any flood disasters, workers which may include core emergency services (SMART Team, Fire and Rescue Department, Malaysian Armed Forces, Royal Malaysian Police) are call up to response to flood disaster. The response phase includes the mobilization of the workers into the disaster area. Workers who must respond to flooded disasters will be most at risk. Workers can expect to find safety and health hazards throughout the flood zone. Some of the hazards related, just to mention a few examples, with working in flood disasters are exposure to hazardous materials, stress, and electrical hazards etcetera. In discussing the topic of workers safety and health in flood disaster the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) 1994 will be used as the term of reference. This specific law is to ensure the safety, health and welfare of all persons at the workplace. The OSHA 1994 requires employers to comply with specific safety and health standards when employing their workers in flood disasters. A survey using risk analysis matrix will be conducted to ascertain what the hazards are which affects the workers safety and health when responding to flood disasters with the recent flood disasters in Kedah/Perlis as reference. So this paper endeavors to propagate to the workers on the importance of understanding of the hazard which effect their safety and health when responding to floods disasters with a guideline on “Workers Safety and Health in Flood Disasters”