Water level reaches the upper bank of the river this year 2022 (not as bad as the flood in 2006)

Malaysia and Our Annual Flooding

Every year the monsoon season in Malaysia brings its victims. Here, Grija recounts the major flood she experienced in 2006.
Malaysia, Southeast Asia

Story by Grija Vijayan. Edited by Melaina Dyck
Published on June 20, 2022. Reading time: 5 minutes

This story is also available in it kr



While some of you are gearing up to leave your country for a quick family vacation, some people are losing their homes and family in the usual annual floods over here in Malaysia. It’s sad and scary, but we are used to the flooding by now. We just hope that our friends and family will recover from the repercussions of this natural disaster as soon as possible.

I’m dedicating this story to all the flood victims who have lost everything and are still living life to the fullest. It’s definitely not easy to bounce back from a natural disaster and especially when it happens every single year. Every year, I am reminded of a horrific flood that I experienced in 2006.

I was back home on my semester break from university around December 2006. After being accepted into a local university, I was pretty excited to be home on a longer break. Usually, the breaks are only for a week or two, but at the end of the year we get a month off. I was so ready to be with my family and just enjoy the time I had with them, not knowing that my plan was about to take a turn.

Most floods in Malaysia are caused by the heavy rainfall brought by cyclical monsoon during the season at the end of year, usually occurring from November to January. Some flash floods are caused by poor drainage while other floods are due to the Gore Effect, which is unseasonably cold weather. Johor, the state where I am from, is not within the usual monsoon-affected zone but we definitely got hit pretty badly in the year 2006 due to the Gore Effect [1].

Mom woke me up early in the morning. I didn’t hear much but the sound of heavy pouring rain couldn’t be missed. I knew we couldn’t get hit by flood by any means because we lived on the upper side of the river and the river never flooded the high bank. Heavy rainfall would raise the water level but that was about it. I knew that if the upper bank did flood our whole town would disappear. I’d never seen the river explode until that year.

I saw couches, shoes, clothes and everything people owned floating right in front of my eyes.

Half-awake, I put on my slippers. The rain subsided a little. So, I walked outside of my house to the road with an umbrella to peek at the river and I saw everything floating. I was shocked. Beyond shocked, actually. I saw couches, shoes, clothes and everything people owned floating right in front of my eyes. Who would have thought that the flood would be considered the worst in the history of the southern region of Malaysia? I know for sure it is still the worst up until today because it was all over the internet and also on the news. We’ve never had that kind of flood since.

As bad as it was, we were grateful that we, at least, lived on the upper side of the river and we didn’t lose anything or anyone in the flood. But then we realized that we weren’t that lucky either. Our water and electricity were cut off for days. Talk about clean water: I was craving just hot showers. We couldn’t go anywhere because the main roads were flooded, and nobody could even get across to our towns.

Sixteen years later, I am still terrified of the 2006 flood, especially when it starts pouring during the monsoon season. Even when I was living in the US, I kept checking on the folks back home whenever the monsoon season started in Malaysia. I knew I couldn’t do anything to help ease the situation from far away, but it’s just that frequent heavy rain terrifies me up to today. Even though the annual flood was not as bad as the one back in 2006, we still got hit earlier this year too. Just like every other year.

The crazy Gore Effect has taken over me this time of the year too, not just the flood. Monsoon brings a lot of rain and also a lot of discomforts. I usually get sick with a cold and fever because the weather can get pretty crazy. Some days it’s on the 32°C / 90°F and it can drop down to 21°C / 70°F in just a matter of days. So, for those of you who are about to travel to Malaysia during the monsoon season, look out for the flood and also the crazy weather fluctuations that you cannot miss. Plan your travel accordingly and have fun visiting Malaysia.


[1] The so-called Gore Effect is called after environmentalist and activist Al Gore who is said to bring with him global climate change-related weather events wherever he goes. 

How does this story make you feel?

Follow-up

Do you have any questions after reading this story? Do you want to follow-up on what you've just read? Get in touch with our team to learn more! Send an email to
[email protected].

Talk about this Story

Please enable cookies to view the comments powered by Disqus.

Share your story

Every story we share is another perspective on a complex topic like migration, gender and sexuality or liberation. We believe that these personal stories are important to better understand what's going on in our globalised society - and to better understand each other. That's because we are convinced that the more we understand about each other, the easier it will be for us to really talk to one another, to get closer - and to maybe find solutions for the issues that affect us all. 

Do you want to share your story? Then have a look here for more info.

Share Your Story

Subscribe to our Monthly Newsletter

Stay up to date with new stories on Correspondents of the World by subscribing to our monthly newsletter:

* indicates required

Follow us on Social Media

Grija Vijayan

Grija Vijayan

Grija is a Malaysian-born expat who has lived the American dream. She earned her BSc. (Hons) in Zoology (Malaysia) and flew for her MS in Agricultural Sciences (USA) and survived 6 years somehow. If she is not reading a book, you can find her hunting for coffee, food, fashion, yoga, fitness or probably the next travel adventure. Hop in for a fun-filled reading adventure in her search for the best of both worlds.

Blog: thedoublelifeofanexpat.wordpress.com/

Instagram: @thedoublelifeofanexpat 

Twitter: @geevjtweets

Facebook: @thedoublelifeofanexpat

Topic: Environment




Get involved

At Correspondents of the World, we want to contribute to a better understanding of one another in a world that seems to get smaller by the day - but somehow neglects to bring people closer together as well. We think that one of the most frequent reasons for misunderstanding and unnecessarily heated debates is that we don't really understand how each of us is affected differently by global issues.

Our aim is to change that with every personal story we share.

Share Your Story

Community Worldwide

Correspondents of the World is not just this website, but also a great community of people from all over the world. While face-to-face meetings are difficult at the moment, our Facebook Community Group is THE place to be to meet other people invested in Correspondents of the World. We are currently running a series of online-tea talks to get to know each other better.

Join Our Community

EXPLORE TOPIC Environment

Global Issues Through Local Eyes

We are Correspondents of the World, an online platform where people from all over the world share their personal stories in relation to global development. We try to collect stories from people of all ages and genders, people with different social and religious backgrounds and people with all kinds of political opinions in order to get a fuller picture of what is going on behind the big news.

Our Correspondents

At Correspondents of the World we invite everyone to share their own story. This means we don't have professional writers or skilled interviewers. We believe that this approach offers a whole new perspective on topics we normally only read about in the news - if at all. If you would like to share your story, you can find more info here.

Share Your Story

Our Editors

We acknowledge that the stories we collect will necessarily be biased. But so is news. Believing in the power of the narrative, our growing team of awesome editors helps correspondents to make sure that their story is strictly about their personal experience - and let that speak for itself.

Become an Editor

Vision

At Correspondents of the World, we want to contribute to a better understanding of one another in a world that seems to get smaller by the day - but somehow neglects to bring people closer together as well. We think that one of the most frequent reasons for misunderstanding and unnecessarily heated debates is that we don't really understand how each of us is affected differently by global issues.

Our aim is to change that with every personal story we share.

View Our Full Vision & Mission Statement

Topics

We believe in quality over quantity. To give ourselves a focus, we started out to collect personal stories that relate to our correspondents' experiences with six different global topics. However, these topics were selected to increase the likelihood that the stories of different correspondents will cover the same issues and therefore illuminate these issues from different perspectives - and not to exclude any stories. If you have a personal story relating to a global issue that's not covered by our topics, please still reach out to us! We definitely have some blind spots and are happy to revise our focus and introduce new topics at any point in time. 

Environment

Discussions about the environment often center on grim, impersonal figures. Among the numbers and warnings, it is easy to forget that all of these statistics actually also affect us - in very different ways. We believe that in order to understand the immensity of environmental topics and global climate change, we need the personal stories of our correspondents.

Gender and Sexuality

Gender is the assumption of a "normal". Unmet expectations of what is normal are a world-wide cause for violence. We hope that the stories of our correspondents will help us to better understand the effects of global developments related to gender and sexuality, and to reveal outdated concepts that have been reinforced for centuries.

Migration

Our correspondents write about migration because it is a deeply personal topic that is often dehumanized. People quickly become foreigners, refugees - a "they". But: we have always been migrating, and we always will. For millions of different reasons. By sharing personal stories about migration, we hope to re-humanize this global topic.

Liberation

We want to support the demand for justice by spotlighting the personal stories of people who seek liberation in all its different forms. Our correspondents share their individual experiences in creating equality. We hope that for some this will be an encouragement to continue their own struggle against inequality and oppression - and for some an encouragement to get involved.

Education

Education is the newest addition to our themes. We believe that education, not only formal but also informal, is one of the core aspects of just and equal society as well as social change. Our correspondents share their experiences and confrontations about educational inequalities, accessibility issues and influence of societal norms and structures. 

Corona Virus

2020 is a year different from others before - not least because of the Corona pandemic. The worldwide spread of a highly contagious virus is something that affects all of us in very different ways. To get a better picture of how the pandemic's plethora of explicit and implicit consequences influences our everyday life, we share lockdown stories from correspondents all over the world.

Growing Fast

Although we started just over a year ago, Correspondents of the World has a quickly growing community of correspondents - and a dedicated team of editors, translators and country managers.

94

Correspondents

113

Stories

57

Countries

433

Translations

Contact

Correspondents of the World is as much a community as an online platform. Please feel free to contact us for whatever reason!

Message Us

Message on WhatsApp

Call Us

Joost: +31 6 30273938