Melati Mohd Ariff, Bernama 20 Apr 09;
KUALA LUMPUR, April 20 (Bernama) -- Billions of ringgit would be spent to clean up the 120km-long Klang River!
This hefty sum is reportedly part of the RM10 billion ringgit allocated by the Selangor state government to redevelop Klang, Petaling Jaya and Kajang.
The Selangor state government said that it wanted to emulate Singapore's success in cleaning up the Singapore River, a programme which took about 10 years for completion.
The proposed project, which is said would make the river reserve a valuable real estate is slated to commence this year and expected to be completed within five years.
Besides preserving one of Mother Nature's greatest endowments to mankind for future generations, Klang River could provide an alternative mode of transportation, specifically for the people of Klang as envisaged by Selangor Menteri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim.
WHAT MAKES A HEALTHY RIVER?
It goes without saying that a healthy river or stream depends very much on its surrounding catchments or watersheds. But how many of us would appreciate that simple fact or we simply choose to ignore it?
More importantly, the surrounding areas of rivers are "forests" in its natural state.
"These riverine forests intercept a large amount of rainfall, the vegetation absorbs it and the remainder infiltrates into the soil to recharge the soil moisture. Together with the soil, the water that is released in forest streams in its natural state is Class 1 (safe to drink straight from source).
"Some then flows downstream as groundwater flow. Hence forests regulate river flows. During the wet season, it acts like a 'sponge' by soaking up a significant portion of rain water, and this reduces the volume of water entering rivers but during the dry season the forest slowly releases water to the river from the ground via gravity," explained Dr Chan Ngai Weng, Professor of Geography Section, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM).
CONCRETE JUNGLES
According to Dr Chan, through transpiration, an average-sized tree loses more than 200 litres of water per hour on a hot day.
This translated into a huge amount of transpiration that goes up into the atmosphere and form clouds, eventually producing rain.
Citing Penang Island as an example, he said, it has lost this transpiration source as most of its forests have given way to 'concrete jungles'.
"It is the same for Kuala Lumpur. If concrete forests replace riverine forests, flash floods will become more frequent due to the inability to retain rainwater.
"Without forests, water will be more polluted as there is no natural filtration," said the Dr Chan who is also the president of Water Watch Penang (WWP).
WWP is a non-profit organisation set up in November 1997 as part of the Sustainable Penang Initiative under the auspices of the Socio-economic & Environmental Research Institute (SERI) of Penang.
NO IMPROVEMENT
Dr Chan also told Bernama that Penang rivers in general are still very dirty.
"Based on results from the Department of Environment (DOE) and our own assessment, the quality of Penang rivers have not improved. It has deteriorated over the years because of public apathy of throwing garbage into rivers," he explained.
He also gave other factors that contribute to the sad state of the rivers that include ineffective enforcement of pollution by factories, businesses and agriculture besides the poor quality effluents of wastewater treatment plants.
According to Dr Chan, Penang people are not very concerned about rivers as they are about economy or politics.
He said Water Watch Penang is working hard to change that attitude via water education and awareness.
Dr Chan also said environmental issues were also regarded as secondary and unimportant.
"It is extremely difficult to change their attitudes. There are not enough funds spent on education, public awareness and inserting environmental education into school curriculum.
"The Penang Government needs to spend much more fund on these aspects. It is futile spending millions to clean up dirty rivers when not a sen is spent on education. What is the use of digging out one tonne of garbage per day when people keep throwing in two or more tonnes daily? Surely, education is the key.
"The State Government has set up a committee on the Management of Sungai Pinang, but most of what is being addressed by this committee is still focused on structural measures, while very little emphasis is on using non-structural measures such as education, awareness and stricter enforcement, " said Dr Chan.
WIN-WIN SITUATION
Making a river a dumpster will eventually kill the river's ecosystem but keeping it clean is a win-win situation, said Piarapakaran Subramaniam, the Programme Manager (Environment Desk) of the Federation of Malaysian Consumers Association (Fomca).
"If we keep it clean, it becomes a source of water and also provides us with aquatic beings as food source for us.
"However, we should not also over-exploit it. Too much extraction of resources from a river can give negative impact, equivalent to polluting it," said Piarapakaran.
"The public needs to understand one basic thing which is whatever we throw into the river ends up in our food chain either by drinking water or food resources. This applies to all water resources," he stressed.
BUKIT LARUT
Piarapakaran who is also the secretary-general of Malaysian Water Forum (MWF) told Bernama, there were not many 'very clean water catchments' left in Malaysia.
Citing Bukit Larut, Perak as one the few left, he said littering resulting from increasing tourism activities is impacting the catchment area to a worrisome level.
"Littering will directly pollute the clean water source. It is noticeable that many who go for a walk in Bukit Larut hills also drink the water directly.
"We do not advice this due to littering in the area and many other sources of pollution that are taking place there," he said.
He said there were seven rivers that were contributing to direct drinking water source around the range of hills in Bukit Larut area.
"The primary water catchment area is 21.53 sq km and obviously the secondary catchment area will be much bigger.
"Due to increasing human activity and the proposed cable car project at Bukit Larut, the hill risk of losing everything. Even now individual septic tanks are put up in the hill resort and the wastewater (sewerage effluent) flows directly to the waterfalls," said Piarapakaran.
LEAN UP OPERATIONS
More than 30 bags of garbage were collected in a one-day clean up operation organised by MWF last March 22 in conjunction with the World Water Day on the same day.
"We managed to clean up half way down the hill. We collected rubbish wherever we could, as some parts were too dangerous and life threatening to access.
"The rubbish we collected consist of polystyrene, plastic bottles and candy wrappers among others. It is sad to think that all these will end up in our drinking water," said Piarapakaran who led the clean-up operations with 12 volunteers from Taiping.
In view of the importance of Bukit Larut hills as a catchment area, Piarapakaran said the clean up activity would be continued every third Saturday of the month, adding that he would not be short of volunteers.
As water catchment is also source for groundwater, MWF, said Piarapakaran calls on all state governments to permanently gazette water catchment areas and prevent all types of development.
"This is the correct move as responsible governments, they need to make decisions not only for today, but also for the future.
"Profit can be made in many ways but not at the expense of lives of our future generations. Their lives are in your hands," he said.
BAD MANAGEMENT
According to Associate Professor Dr Maketab Mohamed of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia's (UTM) Institute of Environmental and Water Resource Management (IPASA), the watershed management in Malaysia, despite all the technical knowledge, is relatively bad when compared to developed countries.
He said in the Environment Quality Act (EQA) 1974, Act 127, the discharge of any effluent upstream of a water intake is more stringent than on the downstream part, but local authorities and the Department of Environment (DOE) still allow industries and housing estates to be built upstream of any water intake.
"The cumulative impacts were not considered. To build one may be okay but how about numerous housing and a couple of industrial estates all upstream? "A classic example is Sungai Skudai which is now under the Public Utilities Board (PUB) of Singapore but will be handed back to the state of Johor.
"The watershed has numerous townships upstream (Senai, Saleng, Kulai, Kulaijaya) and many industries. During the rainy season, the water is turbid, while during the dry season, the intake has to be closed so many times due to the high ammoniacal nitrogen (indicator of sewage/organic pollution)," he told Bernama.
Dr Maketab said in some states in the United States including New York and also in Scandinavian countries, development is restricted in critical watersheds.
"Even farms are not allowed to operate upstream of important watersheds. In Japan, with limited land area, development within important watershed is controlled with (regulations on) effluent discharge being very stringent.
"For example, Lake Biwa which supplies water to Kyoto and Osaka and even most of the Kansai Plains, has very stringent effluent discharge requirements," he said.
WATERSHEDS OF CAMERON HIGHLANDS
In early 2008, Dr Maketab conducted a sanitary survey on the water supply in Cameron Highlands that include Sungai Terla, one of the three important watersheds of the highlands.
The other two vital watersheds are Ulu Sungai Bertam and Sungai Burung.
He said the Sungai Terla water treatment plant provides around 80 per cent of the potable water for Cameron Highlands, thus making it more critical to protect the watershed.
According to Dr Maketab, besides existing farms upstream of the Sungai Terla water treatment plant, there are also new farms allowed to be established resulting in the clearing of forests upstream of the water intake.
The farms are now a major threat to the quality of raw water especially in the form of total suspended solids (TSS) and both fecal and total coliforms due to the presence of human activities and usage or organic fertilizers from animal sources such as chicken droppings.
Dr Maketab said the availability of roads linking Simpang Pulai to Cameron Highlands and Gua Musang has made the upper catchment of Sungai Terla more easily accessible.
"In line with the general practice of watershed management for the purpose of drinking water supply, there should not be any farms or human habitation within the Sungai Terla watershed.
"The safety of the raw water of Sungai Terla can no longer be compromised. The old or the new farms need to be closed immediately for the benefits of the people of Cameron Highlands and tourists visiting the highlands," he stressed, adding that the relevant authorities have been given copies of his study.
-- BERNAMA
