Robust Farming Threatening Malaysia's Biggest Hill Station

Oleh Melati Mohd Ariff, Bernama 17 Feb 09;

CAMERON HIGHLANDS, Feb 17 (Bernama) -- "Malaysia should learn from what had happened in Europe. For the people there, the realization came too late and everything was gone, the damage has been done."

Those were the words of Anthony Van der Ent, a biologist and environment scientist from Holland.

He said: "Most of the environment (in Europe) has been spoiled, polluted or degraded due to massive unsustainable development from the early 1950s. The people of Europe are trying to restore everything back.

"Needless to say it involves a lot of work and money. For instance, it would take thousands of years to restore pristine forests."

According to Van der Ent, Malaysia and other Asian countries are in the same situation to what Europe experienced during the 1950s in terms of economic growth and robust expansion of the industrial and agriculture sectors.

"There are still quite a lot of areas left in Malaysia that are worth conserving but at the pace things are going right now, I am very much concerned that there would not be anything left especially in Cameron Highlands," he said, adding that in the 20 years to come Malaysia would be in the same 'boat' as Europe was in 15 years ago.

CONCERN FOR CAMERON HIGHLANDS

The Dutchman chanced upon Cameron Highlands during a visit to Malaysia with his globe-trotting parents seven years ago and the highland has captivated him so much that he has been coming back for brief visits each year ever since.

In 2005 Van der Ent, then a student at Saxion University Deventer, Netherlands together with another student, Chantal Termeer carried out a study on the river water quality of the 'Upper Bertam' water catchment zone.

Sungai Bertam is the most important river flowing into the TNB Ringlet Reservoir.

The research project on the chemical and ecological water quality of the rivers of the Upper Bertam catchment was assigned to them by a community group of Cameron Highlands, Regional Environment Awareness Cameron Highlands or REACH.

The five months study showed serious pollution of organic compounds and silting being the two most significant causes for water quality deterioration of the Upper Bertam river catchment.

RIVERS IN CAMERON HIGHLANDS

Eight rivers drain Cameron Highlands with Sungai Bertam, Sungai Telom and Sungai Lemoi, being the main ones.

The three rivers have a total of more than 123 tributaries. As such they have a very substantial role in not only supplying water for consumption but also to cater for the needs of the agricultural sector.

Cameron Highlands is also significant because it forms the water catchment for two major rivers of the lowlands -- Sungai Pahang and Sungai Perak.

"A water catchment is the land area in the upper reaches of a river system, normally in the highlands and mainly forested. The highlands and particularly the montane ecosystem forms some of the most important water catchment areas in Peninsular Malaysia.

"The montane forests are water producers and the supply of this precious and most endangered and limited natural resource, both in terms of quantity and quality is very much dependent on forested water catchment areas in the highlands," explained Van der Ent.

He said that forest cover plays a vital role for a water catchment.

"Based on our study then, about 30 per cent of land cover in the Bertam catchment is used by agriculture and urban development", said Van der Ent.

WATER AS INDICATOR

Water quality is seen as the best indicator to benchmark the quality of an environment, as its deterioration can be a direct result of unsustainable development.

How has it been since the 2005 study or since the water crisis that hit Cameron Highlands in 1998?

REACH's president Ramakrishnan Ramasamy told Bernama the overall water situation in Cameron Highlands is not getting any better.

"We are very much concerned about this and a lot of our efforts are focused on these issues. REACH itself was formed because of water quality and quantity in Cameron Highlands.

"Even though it was only formalised in 2001, we had started to voice out our concern way back in 1998 when Cameron Highlands suffered a major water crisis," he said.

Ramakrishnan said as much as 80 per cent of available water resources in Cameron Highlands is being diverted for agriculture sector. He also estimated 80 per cent of the farms in Cameron Highlands are established on slopes higher than the 25-degree gradient permitted.

"Since 2000, we are facing 4.0 million litres shortage of water everyday for a population of 29,000. As of last year, the population has increased to more than 33,000.

"To overcome this shortage, a reservoir was planned at Sungai Terla. At the start of the project there were only six farms above the proposed reservoir and by the time the project took off and completed, the number of farms had grown to more than 60," he said.

CONTINUED CONTAMINATION

For Ramakrishnan, the growing number of farms only spells trouble for water supply in Cameron Highlands.

"Because there are too many farms in the area upstream the Sungai Terla reservoir, the water is contaminated, not only with agricultural wasteS but also with human wasteS as well. Most of the farms hire foreign workers and they do not have proper sanitation," he said.

A farm would have about 10 workers and most of them use chicken droppings as fertilizer.

"When we tested the water, we found E.coli bacteria and when the contaminated water is sent to the lab for further testing, it was found to contain human waste, " he said.

Ramakrishnan blames the local authorities for lack of enforcement and failing to control the opening of new farms located in the area upstream the reservoir.

He said there was a major landslide due to illegal land clearing causing the silting of Sungai Terla in 2008 and the reservoir had to be shut down.

"When there is a reservoir, there should not be any human activity including farming. Due to the lack of enforcement, these farmers are encroaching into water catchment areas, further contaminating the water source.

"The entire area of Cameron Highlands is a water catchment area and most of the forests here work like a sponge, they collect water and retain water. Streams flow from these forests. If you disturb the forests, it means you are cutting back on the water source," he explained.

According to Ramakrishnan, REACH conducts regular tests at least once in three months both for raw and treated water collected from all towns in Cameron Highlands.

"It was frightening, in treated water the presence of E.coli bacteria was too much to count," he said.

Ramakrishnan said last year, REACH collaborated with a group of researchers from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) in Skudai, Johor to undertake a study on the water quality in Cameron Highlands.

"They did a test and they were shocked as well to see how contaminated our water was," he said.

WRATH OF MOTHER NATURE

There is one other issue that has got Ramakrishnan more than worried. He fears the wrath of Mother Nature on Cameron Highlands.

And it is happening.

He cited the many landslides that occurred especially end of last year were due to heavy rain.

"My biggest fear is that some of the landslides occurred on slopes that was free from human dealings," he said.

"In December last year, for just an hour's drive over for a stretch of less than 10 km around Pos Terisu (an Orang Asli settlement about 15 km from Kuala Terla) we lost count of the number of landslides that had occurred, big and small ones, " he said.

According to Ramakrishnan, at the rate the clearing of forests around Pos Terisu is being done, the agriculture activities there would surpass Bertam Valley in no time.

"The Orang Asli settlement is being surrounded by agricultural land now," he said.

Ramakrishnan recalled a major landslide in Habu in the late 1990s when a farmer built his own reservoir in the area above the reservoir constructed by the Water Works Department (JBA).

"The (farmer's) reservoir burst and swept down the JBA's tank. The massive landslide that it caused killed two passers-by," he said.

Ramakrishnan then cited the floods that hit Kampung Raja and according to him, floods have becoming more frequent in Kampung Raja for the past two years.

He also spoke on the flood that hit the big football field in Tanah Rata.

"The last time I remembered when the football field was flooded, it was in the 1980s. Last year it flooded again, one reason because of the severe silting in Sungai Bertam. The river could not cope and it was due to the rampant agricultural activities upstream of the river," he explained.

Ramakrishnan expressed his profound concern with the silting that is taking place especially in Sungai Bertam that flows into the Sultan Abu Bakar Dam.

The capacity of the dam is only to hold water and not silt. Ramakrishnan said he had highlighted this issue for the local authorities to check on activities at the upstream of Sungai Bertam.

He estimated that 600,00 cubic metres of silt is being swept into the dam every year.

"If you do not slow down the activities on the upstream and if the dam is to burst, everything here until Lipis would be gone and the survival chance is almost none.

"I feel very sad and worried with what is happening. I participated in a lot of relief work during natural disasters, both locally (floods in Segamat) and abroad (earthquakes in Iran and China, Acheh after the tsunami).

"I have seen the effect of all these disasters and I worry Cameron Highlands may suffer the same fate. This frustrates me more," said Ramakrishnan who is a member of the Malaysian Volunteers Fire and Rescue Association.

-- BERNAMA