Kallang Riverside megatrash
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Depressing Reef Survey Dive @ Pulau Hantu
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Longhorn Beetle (Xylorhiza adusta)
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Tiger farming and traditional Chinese medicine
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Preventing widespread floods more realistic, he says
Jeremy Au Yong, Straits Times 28 Jun 10;
GIVEN Singapore's tropical climate, it will be very costly to keep the country flood-free, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong yesterday.
Speaking for the first time on the two flash floods this month, he noted that any attempt to wipe out flooding here would require plenty of money and land.
'If you are going to do that, you will need huge tracts of land put aside for huge monsoon drains, which will be empty most of the time, (and) the infrastructure will cost a lot of money and it is not worth it,' he said.
A more realistic objective, he added, is to prevent widespread and prolonged flooding, and limit the risk to lives and damage to property.
Mr Lee made the point while assuring Singaporeans that the Government 'will continue to implement new drainage works, to improve the design of the drainage systems and deal with more intense storms'.
'But I don't think it is possible in Singapore to expect the place to be completely free of floods,' he said, as heavy downpours are very much part of the climate for an 'island in the tropics'.
PM Lee was speaking at the opening of new facilities at Lower Seletar Reservoir that include a Rower's Bay for competitive rowing and a 170m bridge that gives panoramic views of the reservoir.
They were built under a programme known as ABC Waters (Active, Beautiful, Clean), to freshen up Singapore's reservoirs and rivers and turn them into recreation spaces.
The Prime Minister, in his speech, also stressed the need to have contingency plans for unusually heavy rain to ensure swift response in pinpointing the problem areas, dealing with them and 'putting them right'.
He was keen to make sure the recent floods that caused chaos and disruption in Orchard Road, Thomson Road, Bukit Timah and Tanjong Katong would not happen again.
'We have to learn from these episodes, do post-mortems, find out what happened, and upgrade our infrastructure and systems,' he said.
The flood that submerged parts of Orchard Road two weeks ago was the worst to hit the area in more than two decades.
It caused traffic chaos and millions in losses as several shops on the shopping belt were inundated with waist-high water.
The flood was blamed on a clogged drain in the area and record rainfall - 60 per cent of what normally falls in the entire month of June poured down in one morning.
A similar storm landed a week later, and this time it was areas such as Thomson Road, Bukit Timah and Tanjong Katong that saw rising waters which, however, subsided in 30 minutes.
The two incidents had many Singaporeans chiding national water agency, PUB .
Yesterday, PM Lee defended the agency's work, noting that floods were relatively rare occurrences in Singapore.
'PUB has ongoing drainage improvement programmes which, over the years, have made floods much rarer, and much less severe so much so that when it does happen, we are sometimes taken by surprise and we scramble to see how we can deal with those remaining problems,' he said.
PUB had admitted to being caught off-guard by the Orchard Road floods and has since taken several measures.
They include installing new gratings on drains upstream of Orchard Road to trap debris such as leaves and plastic bags and having its contractors clean big drains monthly instead of quarterly.
But ultimately, it is not just the PUB that has to take flood prevention measures, said Mr Lee.
'We all have parts to play, to keep our public places and our waterways clean.
'We must prevent litter from choking up our drains. Otherwise, the litter will find its ways into the canals, into the drains, into the reservoirs and pollute our water supply,' he said.
Singapore must learn from recent flooding episodes: PM Lee
Jeremy Koh Channel NewsAsia 27 Jun 10;
SINGAPORE: Singapore must learn from the recent flooding episodes and upgrade its infrastructure and systems, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
However, he added, it is also not realistic to expect the country to be completely free of floods.
And, individuals need to also take responsibility.
Mr Lee said this at the opening of the PUB's Active, Beautiful, Clean or ABC Waters project at Lower Seletar Reservoir.
After a S$10 million facelift under the ABC Waters programme, Lower Seletar Reservoir now has new facilities, among them, a 170m bridge which extends from the banks of the reservoir, allowing residents to venture over the water.
Children can also have fun at the new water play area and wading stream.
The ABC Waters programme is a long-term masterplan to transform Singapore's waterways and reservoirs into vibrant community spaces.
Visiting the revamped area on Sunday, Prime Minister Lee reminded Singaporeans to be responsible for the facilities even as they enjoy them.
He said: "We all have parts to play to keep public places and our waterways clean. We must prevent the litter from choking up our drains, otherwise the litter will find its way into the drains, into the canals, into the reservoirs and pollute our water supply."
Turning to the recent floods, Mr Lee said Singapore must learn from the episodes and upgrade its infrastructure and systems.
He said: "We will continue to implement new drainage works, improve the design of the drainage systems and to deal with more intense storms. But I don't think it's possible in Singapore to expect the place to be completely free of floods. Because if you're going to do that, you'll have to have huge tracts of land put aside for huge monsoon drains which will be empty most of the time, the land is tied up, the infrastructure will cost a lot of money."
So, Mr Lee said a more realistic objective is to prevent widespread and prolonged flooding and limit the risk to lives and damage to properties.
He added that contingency plans should be in place to ensure that if there's heavier rain than usual, the relevant agencies are able to respond quickly to deal with the problems.
- CNA/ir
PM: not realistic to expect Singapore to be flood-free
Business Times 28 Jun 10;
SINGAPORE must learn from the recent flooding episodes and upgrade its infrastructure and systems, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong yesterday.
However, it is also not realistic to expect the country to be completely free of floods, he said at the opening of the PUB's ABC Waters project at Lower Seletar Reservoir.
According to a ChannelNewsAsia report, he said: 'We will continue to implement new drainage works, improve the design of the drainage systems and to deal with more intense storms.
'But I don't think it's possible in Singapore to expect the place to be completely free of floods. Because if you're going to do that, you'll have to have huge tracts of land put aside for huge monsoon drains which will be empty most of the time, the land is tied up, the infrastructure will cost a lot of money.'
So, a more realistic objective is to prevent widespread and prolonged flooding and limit the risk to lives and damage to property, said PM Lee. He added that contingency plans should be in place to ensure that if there is heavier rain than usual, the relevant agencies are able to respond quickly to deal with the problems.
Heavy rainfall on June 16 caused massive floods at Orchard Road and millions of dollars of damage, while flash floods also hit Singapore last Friday and caused chaos on some roads. National water agency PUB had said that the Orchard Road flood and the impact and disruption to people, traffic and business was 'unacceptable'.
PM: We can't be flood-free but can limit impact
Jeremy Koh Today Online 28 Jun 10;
SINGAPORE - Singapore must learn from the recent flooding episodes and upgrade its infrastructure and systems, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
However, he added, it's also not realistic to expect the country to be completely free of floods. To do so would require huge tracts of land to be put aside for huge monsoon drains which will be empty most of the time.
"The land is tied up, the infrastructure will cost a lot of money, and it's not worth it," he said.
It is more realistic to prevent widespread and prolonged flooding, and limit the risk to lives and damage to property, he said.
"We have to have contingency plans so that if we have heavier rain than usual", the relevant agencies would be able to respond quickly to deal with the problems, Mr Lee said.
"PUB has an ongoing drainage improvement programme which over the years has made floods much rarer and much less severe," he said. "So much so that when it does happen, we're sometimes taken by surprise and we scramble to see how we can deal with those remaining problems."
Two weeks ago, a flash flood in Orchard Road - caused by a blocked canal that overflowed - caused millions of dollars in damages to shops, as traffic along the shopping belt came to a halt in knee-deep water.
Last Friday, heavy rain brought about flash floods in several areas again. Just like on June 16, 100mm of rain - 60 per cent of June's average rainfall - fell in a short span of time.
Singaporeans can do their part in keeping the waterways free, said PM Lee at the opening of the PUB's Active, Beautiful, Clean or ABC Waters project at Lower Seletar Reservoir yesterday.
"We all have parts to play to keep public places and our waterways clean. We must prevent the litter from choking up our drains, otherwise the litter will find its way into the drains, into the canals, into the reservoirs and pollute our water supply," he said.
After a $10-million facelift under the ABC Waters programme, Lower Seletar Reservoir now has new facilities, among them, a 170m bridge which extends from the banks of the reservoir, allowing residents to venture over the water.
The ABC Waters programme is a long-term plan to transform Singapore's waterways and reservoirs into vibrant community spaces. Jeremy Koh
Richard Hartung Today Online 28 Jun 10;
The real news last Friday was that Orchard Road did not flood. Even as headlines focused on floods in Bishan or Chai Chee and a fallen tree on the Central Expressway, what's really remarkable was that water flowed smoothly in the drains along Orchard Road.
It is not that the rain was not torrential. PUB said that once again this past week, just like the week before, 100mm of rain fell within about one hour. The big difference was that shops along Orchard Road stayed dry this time and shops in other parts of the island flooded.
What's also different is that there had been a sudden flurry of activity around the Orchard Road area over the past week.
After the Orchard Road flood, PUB chief executive Khoo Teng Chye said his agency would take action to prevent a recurrence and PUB got to work right away. A photo on Thursday showed gratings being installed in drains along Holland Road as part of improvements from there to the drains behind Tanglin Shopping Centre. Small bulldozers were used to clear debris, too.
After the Orchard floods, PUB's Mr Khoo also told the media that "we were, frankly, a little bit caught off-guard by what happened at Stamford Canal. But, of course, now that becomes a new hot spot."
Unfortunately, there are still more new hot spots now. Along with Bishan and Chai Chee, shops and roads flooded in Changi Road, Toh Tuck and other locations around the island. The Singapore Civil Defence Force even had to rescue children from a childcare centre in Telok Kurau.
The damage just from the two recent floods is tremendous. Losses were estimated at more than $6 million along Orchard Road on June 16 and at nearly $1 million or more on June 25, excluding the cost of rescue efforts and commuters' time traversing around the floods.
It is hard to estimate the cost of Singapore's tarnished reputation for efficiency and preparedness.
The key issue is what to do next.
The short-term solution seems easy. Since shops along Orchard Road did not get flooded again, cleaning drains and installing grates seems like a quick fix to handle massive amounts of water.
An immediate priority could be to focus on detecting similar problems and preventing them island-wide. Every day, Mr Khoo said, more than 360 contractors spread out across the island to maintain the drains.
Along with this regular maintenance, an urgent inspection of the drains would enable contractors to check flood-prone areas quickly, clean out clogged drains and install grates.
The floods seem to be more than a short-term problem though, and flood-prone areas may have expanded beyond the "only about 66 hectares" that the PUB currently estimates. More frequent heavy rain seems likely - though hopefully not every week - so developing a longer-term strategy seems better than simply jumping from one hot spot to the next.
Although PUB has not talked much about new longer term plans so far, planning in other countries provides constructive examples of what could be considered.
While the Netherlands has a bigger problem with water than Singapore, it provides one model. A Delta Committee undertook a detailed study, presented its findings in 2008 and said "its recommendations must be future-proof". The Netherlands plans to spend up to €1.6 billion ($2.7 billion) per year to strengthen dykes and prevent flooding.
Hong Kong, which gets 2.2m of rain per year, offers another example. It has a dedicated Drainage Services Department (DSD), with a budget of more than HK$1.8 billion ($322 million), that is tasked with providing "world-class wastewater and storm water drainage services". It regularly develops and improves its Drainage Master Plan and Flood Control Strategy Studies.
While Committees and Studies won't solve everything, convening experts to analyse current practices and developing a longer-term strategic plan could be prudent.
And even though Singapore's smaller size and not yet needing to build dykes means that it does not need a Netherlands-sized budget, reviewing the annual budgets here of $23 million for maintenance and $150 million for drainage improvement could be beneficial.
After one large flood along Bukit Timah last year and two big floods around the island already this year, doing more than business-as-usual could be appropriate.
The writer is a consultant who has lived in Singapore since 1992
Ministers and mayors here for World Cities Summit, Water Week
Robin Chan Straits Times 28 Jun 10;
INTELLECTUALS, businessmen, scientists and bureaucrats will descend on Singapore this week with sustainability, water and urban solutions on their minds.
The second World Cities Summit (WCS) and Expo and third Singapore International Water Week kick off today at Suntec City.
For the first time, there will be a WCS Mayors' Forum, which has attracted some 25 ministers and 45 mayors and governors from 20 countries around the world, including mayors from Tangshan, Melbourne and Freiburg as speakers.
They will discuss best practices and solutions to building liveable and sustainable cities.
The forum on Wednesday will explore the role of good governance in urban development, and look at how cities can develop in a more environmentally responsible way.
This week will also see the presentation of the first Lee Kuan Yew World City Prize to Bilbao City Hall, which was named as the winner last month for its success in transforming the Spanish city.
The Lee Kuan Yew Water Prize, won by China's Yellow River Conservancy Commission this year, will also be presented.
And at the WCS Expo, displays from various student groups will be showcased for the first time.
These include architectural and planning designs, as well as digital games on sustainable development and environmental awareness.
Key highlights of the expo, which has attracted over 50 participating companies and agencies, will include exhibits by the Housing Board, the Urban Redevelopment Authority and the city of Bilbao.
A robot that does household chores will be a highlight at the Agency for Science, Technology and Research's expo booth.
The WCS will also feature a ministerial dialogue with 10 ministers from emerging countries and cities to discuss their priorities after surviving the economic crisis, and their vision for a liveable and vibrant city.
Some of the highlights of Water Week, which ends on Friday, one day after WCS, include a forum with water ministers, as well as a first ever river basin and delta management workshop.
The PUB also spells out its long-term water plans for the next 50 years today.
Throughout the four days of the summit, there will also be a series of 'learning journeys' when international delegations will be taken to see some of Singapore's latest urban achievements including Marina Bay Sands, the Southern Ridges, Pinnacle@Duxton and Chek Jawa Wetlands at Pulau Ubin.
Mr Andrew Tan, co-chairman of the WCS and the director of the Centre for Liveable Cities, said: 'There is currently no platform like this where you can have practitioners gathering to address these issues and not only look at it from a policy perspective, but also look for solutions.
'I think Singapore can provide that niche, in this platform, where we are in a way, almost like a test bed and almost a living laboratory of some of these things that we have done here.
'It may not be relevant in other parts of the world, but at least the lessons that we have learnt, both the good and the bad, can be shared with others just as we learn from the others.'
Animal activist Louis Ng wants to help the creatures and get people to be animal-friendly too
akshita nanda Straits Times 28 Jun 10;
He works against the illegal wildlife trade, saves tiny sea creatures from oil spills and even volunteers to get large, lost monitor lizards out of people's bathrooms for free.
But surrounded by students and staff sporting identical T-shirts and jeans, Mr Louis Ng of the Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (Acres) at first glance looks more like a camp counsellor or school adviser.
At Jalan Lekar near Choa Chu Kang, the headquarters of the animal group he founded is a hive of youthful activity. Students from Anglo-Chinese Junior College are clipping the grass, interns from overseas institutes are cleaning the common area and more young people from Singapore Polytechnic are straggling up the 1km walk from Sungei Tengah Road to prepare for a talk they are giving schoolchildren on animal conservation.
The 31-year-old executive director of Acres beams proudly at the industrious youth as he shows this reporter around the society's one-year-old animal rescue centre.
'We couldn't do any of this without our donors and volunteers,' he says, pointing out the public education hall sponsored by the Lee Foundation and decorated with murals designed by students from Admiralty Secondary School.
Dogged by four canine pets belonging to Acres' staff, we walk past the administration building and the volunteer housing with five bedrooms and a lounge to let visitors spend more time at the centre.
The only place off-limits is the quarantine block, which houses more than 20 recently rescued animals, including an iguana missing its lower jaw. All are being treated before they can be returned to their native countries or habitats.
Mr Ng sits down at the outdoor staff area, his pet Pomeranian Penny at his feet. Rescued from a puppy farm, she has a deformed hind leg, walks with a limp and is still shy with strangers.
Her owner gets up to shoo away a pigeon that keeps flying in to roost on the sofa next to his chair. 'Winkle knows it's not supposed to come here,' he says, clamming up when asked about the animal's history. 'I really don't want to talk about it,' he repeats several times.
It appears to be a painful story, one of many sad experiences he has had in Acres' nine years of trying to help animals injured by accident or the illegal wildlife trade.
He has watched a starving bear die in Laos and coaxed a wild monkey out of the trauma of captivity in Singapore. Tales such as these come out in poignant bursts as he speaks about the non-profit charity's activities, which range from raising awareness on animal issues to going undercover to survey the business of selling endangered animal species for pets or parts.
He and other members at Acres are on call 24 hours a day. They baulk at nothing, whether it is taking a trapped python out of a construction site as they did two weeks ago or working from dawn to dusk last month to rescue sea creatures from the oil spill that hit Changi Beach.
On the day we chat, Mr Ng's wife, Britain-born zoologist Amy Corrigan, 32, is on a 'sensitive' undercover operation somewhere in Asia and he refuses to reveal further details. A mutual passion for wildlife is what brought them together five years ago, while he was at a rescue centre in Thailand. Ironically, this shared concern often keeps them apart.
Acres' animal protection programme, especially rescuing wildlife locally, takes up most of the between $500,000 and $600,000 the society needs a year. It is mainly funded by donations and qualifies as an institute of public character, so donations to it are tax-exempt. Statements of account are available at its website.
Its 11 full-time staff work for salaries starting from $500 a month. Mr Ng, who has a biology degree from the National University of Singapore (NUS) and a master's in primate conservation from Oxford Brookes University in Britain, earns $1,600 monthly; his wife, $300 less as director of education and cruelty free living. They live 'a simple life' in an HDB flat in Jurong West and 'don't go out drinking or clubbing'.
Grants and donations keep the rescue centre in operation and Mr Ng feels that support has been growing, even though some months are tight. 'The bulk of our donations is the $5 or $20 from the man on the street,' he says.
The society's supporter database has more than 14,000 people and most are responsive to requests for funds and help. Acres' sole van, used to transport animals and equipment, broke down on the day of our meeting and an e-mail to supporters netted almost $2,000 in individual donations within hours.
People also contribute in other ways.
In the first few months of this year alone, hundreds of new volunteers, many from local schools, have spent more than 3,000 hours helping the society spread awareness on animal issues and maintain its premises, among other things.
Acres' 24-hour rescue hotline now also receives calls almost daily to free wild animals that wander into homes - calls that might otherwise be directed to pest control agencies or exterminators.
A day before our chat, Mr Ng helped a monitor lizard out of a house in Holland Road. The woman who called for help was terrified of the beast but did not want it to be killed. 'She even gave us a donation for coming down,' he says, smiling.
The public is also keeping an eye out for signs of illegal wildlife trade, such as the sale of bear and tiger organs used in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM).
According to a June 3 Straits Times report, 'Probe into illegal sale of bear parts', for example, a tip-off to Acres led the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) to investigate a trader at the Singapore Food Expo who was allegedly selling bear gall bladders.
'We are not just trying to help animals but also start a movement,' says Mr Ng, who does not want people to love animals as much as to recognise that some practices involving them are inhumane.
He has his detractors, with people calling the Acres hotline to defend their use of illegal animal parts or having unknown elements splash his door with red paint last year. 'That only tells me I'm doing something right,' he says.
But he is keen to stress that he believes in 'partnership, not confrontation'.
In 2007, Acres signed a deal with the Singapore TCM Organisations Committee to launch a scheme to help end trade in products from endangered species. TCM shops committed to not selling such items get a special label for their shop windows.
He also takes a large stuffed bear in a cage on roadshows to the heartlands for an in-the-face demonstration of the inhumanity of keeping Asiatic bears in tiny cages and milking them for their bile.
This sort of drive is what has gained him the respect of animal welfare workers, including Ms Deirdre Moss of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
'He's very passionate. I think Singapore needs more young people to step forward and fight animal cruelty,' says the executive officer of Singapore's oldest animal charity, who has been working for animals for 26 years. 'He's achieved a lot in a short time. He's faced a lot of odds, which has strengthened his resolve.'
Chimpanzee changed his life Obstacles or opposition rarely faze Mr Ng for long, says Ms Anbarasi Boopal, 27, who runs Acres' Wildlife Crime Unit. 'All of us (Acres' staff) see him to solve problems immediately,' she adds.
Two years ago, she learnt that a neighbour was keeping a hornbill and an Indian star tortoise illegally. After getting in touch with Acres, she was so moved by its work, she left her job at another non-profit group to join it full-time. She lives on the premises, as do two other staff members, and earns about $1,000 a month.
'It's not that bad, as we provide board,' Mr Ng jokes. But neither he nor his staff are in it for the money, a fact that gave his parents a few tough moments when he first told them his career plans. He is the younger of two children and his sister is a dentist.
His father, sales manager Robert Ng, is fully behind his son, though he worries about the younger man's future. 'I always tell him he cannot live on such things,' says the 62-year-old, who often urges friends to donate to Acres.
He is content that his son is doing what he enjoys most and is somewhat reassured by the fact that 'Louis is not the only one' and there are other people committed to animals for little pay.
His wife, retired civil servant Angela Quek, 61, says their son has loved animals from a young age, was passionately devoted to his pet hamster and even wanted to be a vet when younger. Still, his decision to do biology and then devote himself to animals came as a surprise.
Like her husband, she decided to leave it to him. 'He should be able to pursue his passion, that makes us parents happy.'
She adds: 'I'm also quite proud of him. He could easily earn more than what he is getting but it is rare to find somebody who will make sacrifices for animals.'
Her son recalls that this same willingness to make sacrifices caused his mother some uneasy moments when he was in his early teens.
After watching the 1988 movie Gorillas In The Mist, about the life and work of the late primate scientist Dian Fossey, he told her that he 'wanted to grow up to be like Dian'. 'My mum freaked out because at the end of the movie, Dian was murdered,' he says with a chuckle.
His resolve to work for animals was strengthened at age 14, when he watched a documentary on turtles. That year, he gave up turtle soup and then 'a meat a year' until turning totally vegetarian at age 21.
While studying at NUS, he volunteered as a photographer at the Singapore Zoo and met the animal that would change his life: Young chimpanzee Rhamba had been separated from her family to pose for photographs with visitors and was reportedly treated roughly by her human caretakers. A tip-off to The Straits Times resulted in a successful campaign for the ape to be returned to her family.
The heartwarming sight of baby Rhamba reuniting with her mother left him determined to do more for wild animals. He and eight friends set up Acres in 2001, writing to organisations including the Lee Foundation for money.
In the years since, Acres has rescued a rare South African vervet monkey and found it a home in Zambia; started undercover operations that have helped the AVA clamp down on the illegal trade in bear and tiger parts; and, of course, opened its animal rescue centre.
A cyan simian is now part of its logo, in memory of past triumphs. But there have been many defeats. 'In all honesty, there are days we want to just give up,' he says, citing the problems that dogged the opening of the animal rescue centre.
Set to open in 2007, it was delayed by funding woes and then faced a catastrophe last year. Several new animal enclosures had to be torn down when it turned out that developer error had polluted the ground and rendered the buildings unstable. 'I was in tears,' he recalls.
The court has since awarded damages to Acres but he refuses to discuss details. He does reveal, however, that a figure of a pig with wings hung at the shelter for months to remind him that 'this pig would fly' in spite of every indication that it would not.
Another touchstone is a photograph of Rhamba on his work table. She died in 2004 but remains a symbol of why he entered this line of work. 'Every time we rescue an animal, that keeps us going,' he says. 'I may never be a millionaire but yesterday we released a monitor lizard - that was a million-dollar moment.'
He has also recently begun spending one week a month in Boten, Laos, to set up a shelter for bears that were being farmed illegally for their bile. He receives offers to work overseas but his home and heart are in Singapore and this is where he intends to keep working for animals.
He draws strength from his family and the students who visit Acres and tell him how their eyes have been opened to the plight of animals. He hopes that everyone in Singapore would eventually act for animal welfare and adopt animal-friendly lifestyles.
He says his dream sounds far-fetched but points out everything that people have helped the society achieve thus far. 'If it was easy, someone else would have done it long ago. The key thing with Acres is that we have shown that the impossible is possible in Singapore.'
akshitan@sph.com.sg
my life so far
'I don't make much money, but I come to work every day knowing that this is what I want to do'
Acres founder Louis Ng
'Put a human in a cage and he will spit at you but an animal wants affection'
On what moves him about animals
'Everybody says people who use illegal animal parts are cruel but I don't think they are. I think they are ignorant. If you let them see what a bear is really like in the wild, there will be some awareness... We don't need everyone in Singapore to love animals but we need to build a sense of the injustice'
On raising awareness to reduce illegal trade in wild animal parts
'Believe it or not, I'm a very shy person. During university, I spent a lot of time alone at Kent Ridge Park'
On being the public face of Acres
'We went to see animals in the wild. It's like a recharge. We see all these sad animals here but we want to see happy animals in the wild where they belong'
Charles Fernandez The Star 28 Jun 10;
BILLIONS of ringgit is being lost through illegal sand mining in the state and questions are being thrown at the authorities as to how the sand is being shipped out under their noses.
The Sepang district council have come under fire recently as Dengkil, Jenderam and several areas in Puchong have been repeatedly mentioned as illegal sand-mining hotspots.
And what has the Land Office been doing when accusations are being hurled at them that sand pirates are siphoning out the commodity with impunity.
Sepang district officer Mohd Amin Ahmad Ahya in a recent interview said they have been acting against illegal sand mining operators since January and had thus far managed to close down 12 hotspots – the biggest being in Puchong Mas where the operators were said to be raking in more than RM4mil annually.
However he contended that while closing these hotspots were not easy, monitoring them was even more difficult as enforcement officers were consistently being harassed whenever they made their rounds to these areas.
“We believe there are many more mines and we are constantly surveying the areas but the touts are not making it any easier for us. Since the closure of some of the hotspots, our movements are constantly being monitored.
“Some of our officers face intimidation from them but fortunately nothing untoward has happened as they (enforcement officers) have kept their cool,’’ added Mohd Amin.
During a visit to some of the closed illegal sand mining areas recently, we were constantly tailgated by at least three or more four-wheelers with multiple antennas on their vehicles, supposedly radioing the operators to ensure that the lorries did not exit paths where our vehicle was heading.
The touts were on our trail the entire three hours.
Assistant district officer Azri Effendy Abu Sujak said more often than not, the Land Office had faced resistance from these operators when they were ordered to cease operations.
Azri said the operators were first issued the 7A for flouting the law, the 7B asking them to explain why action should be taken against them and finally the 8A – confiscation of the land.
“We have been successful so far in our endeavour to control further illegal sand mining activities in the district.
“However there are fingers being pointed` at us for allowing sand mining activities along riverbanks,’’ he said.
Azri said the Land Office had allowed sand mining along Sungai Langat, Sungai Labu, Sungai Rasau, Sungai Semenyih, Sungai Jenderam and Sungai Semerang to private operators to mine sand disposed off at the rivers when they are on the run from enforcement officers.
He said Sepang district shares a common boundary with Kuala Langat, Ulu Langat and Nilai and the Land Office has also been accused of closing an eye on sand mining activities when in reality the stealing is not in their area.
Azri said streams, sometimes not clearly visible, denote the boundaries; and by internal roads and TNB high-tension voltage cables, but the respective Land Offices assist each other in the enforcements.
Panel to check sand smuggling
Sira Habibu The Star 28 Jun 10;
PETALING JAYA: Malaysia has set up a high-level integrity committee to check sand smuggling activity.
Home Ministry director-general Datuk Seri Mahmood Adam said the committee was set up based on a proposal submitted by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).
“We are taking an integrated approach to resolve this issue,’’ he said.
Mahmood was responding to reports in The Star highlighting massive sand smuggling activities that had caused Malaysia to lose sand believed to be worth hundreds of millions of ringgit over the years.
MACC and the Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit are the secretariat for the committee, said Mahmood.
It is learnt that the committee was formed after the National Security Council raised security threat alert over rampant sand smuggling.
The committee is expected to look into regulatory aspects as part of the preventive measure to check smuggling.
Commenting on the issue, Senator Ezam Mohd Noor urged the MACC to take stern and immediate action against officers who had been abetting smuggling syndicates.
“Such massive movement of sand would not have occurred without corruption,” he said.
“MACC must investigate and take action against all corrupt individuals even if it involved high ranking officers and politicians,’’ he added.
Ezam said it was impossible for law enforcement officers not to see the movement of lorries and barges laden with sand.
In Johor Baru, Mentri Besar Datuk Abdul Ghani Othman said sand mining activities could be traced with 24-hour surveillance but the state did not have the manpower to cope.
The state, he said, was doing all it could including working with the marine police, Customs, Maritime Enforcement Agency, and the Land and Mines Department.
“We welcome any help or feedback from the people to curb this problem but at this point, we are doing all we can,” he told a press conference yesterday.
Abdul Ghani also said it was difficult for the state government to trace every exit point for illegal sand miners as there were many possible routes.
Abdul Ghani said the state was conducting stringent checks at the border to keep tabs on those who bring sand out but claim it was silica.
“Both silica and sand are very similar,” he said.
Chemists were also sent there to ascertain if the load was sand or silica, he added.
Ruben Sario The Star 28 Jun 10;
ENVIRONMENTAL groups are lauding the Sabah Government’s move of stopping a sand dredging operation along the ecologically sensitive Kinabatangan River.
And the state appears to be prepared to up the ante even further with Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun announcing that the government was considering imposing a total ban on sand dredging along the 560km waterway.
Last Wednesday, Masidi announced that the state Environmental Protection Department (EPD) under his ministry had been directed to withdraw an Environmental Impact Approval (EIA) for the sand dredging operation.
The department had approved the EIA report on the sand dredging on May 20, with EPD director Yabi Yangkat explaining the operation had fufilled the needs of Section 12(3) Environment Protection Enactment 2002 and Environment Protection (Prescribed Activities) Order 2005.
Interestingly, Yabi also said the Sabah Land and Survey Department had however issued the Temporary Occupation Lease (TOL) for the area concerned in September 2009, eight months before the EIA report was approved.
Villagers along the Kinabatangan and Kinabatangan Orang Utan Conservation Project chief warden Azri Sawang raised the alarm about the sand dredging after spotting barges laden with the material moving almost daily along the river.
According to Azri the local community was confused as to why such an environmentally damaging activity was allowed at the river by a government department when other departments were working so hard to protect the Kinabatangan river.
“It is very confusing. We hear time and again that the government is committed to protecting this area but here we find one department allowing this type of activity.
“As for us, we want to protect the Kinabatangan” he added.
He said that what was even more worrying, was that at least three barges were seen daily and all of them seem to have a permit valid for a full year’s operation.
“At this rate the Kinabatangan may be damaged permanently,” said Azri, who hails from Kampung Sukau which has been drawing tourists wanting to see the various wildlife such as proboscis monkeys, orang utan and Borneo pygmy elephants in their natural environment.
But wildlife experts have been worrying about the future of these animals as the remaining tracts of forest along the Kinabatangan were fragmented and surrounded largely by oil palm plantations.
The concern is not only about a limited amount of habitat and food sources but the continued isolation among groups of animals that would lead to in-breeding, eventually causing a decline in the population.
Masidi’s ministry along with other groups have been working to create forest corridors to enable the animals to move between the fragmented forests.
And when announcing the retraction of the approval for the EIA report, Masidi wondered aloud how it could have been approved in the first place.
“There was an apparent failure to take into consideration that the state government is creating forest corridors in the Kinabatangan to allow the movement of wildlife among fragmented forests.
“It simply does not make sense for a department to allow for something that contradicts this initiative,” he said.
Perhaps all these could have been prevented if the authorities had drawn up a list of identified environmentally sensitive areas such as river banks, coastal zones and certain hill slopes that would be off-limits to ecologically damaging activities.
If all these had been in place, perhaps the worries of the Kinabatangan village folk would have not materialised in the first place.
Ravi Velloor, Straits Times 28 Jun 10;
NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's six years in power have produced an economy poised for double-digit growth, infrastructure that is finally getting fixed and rising clout on the global front.
But he has one growing worry: India's failing farm sector, where six out of 10 of its citizens make their living.
Shortages of grain are a major concern, and food prices are soaring. Misery on the farm front, including farmers' inability to pay off moneylenders, leads to thousands taking their own lives every year.
'India must strive to raise agricultural production from 2 per cent annually on average to 4 per cent,' Dr Singh, an economist by training, said recently.
The annual monsoon has become unreliable. When it failed last year, production of food grains dropped to below 220 million tonnes, barely enough to feed a population of 1.2 billion.
Farm productivity is so poor that India lags behind its neighbours Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in the amount of rice it can extract from every acre of land.
'We are on the verge of a disaster,' says Professor M.S. Swaminathan, India's foremost agriculture scientist and a Magsaysay Prize winner. 'We will be in serious difficulty if food productivity is not increased and farming is neglected.'
Even though the forecast is for a normal monsoon this year, long-term issues remain to be tackled and that is on Dr Singh's mind.
'India commands about 2.3 per cent of the world's land area and about 4 per cent of the earth's fresh water resources, but feeds about 17 per cent of the world's population,' he pointed out. 'This puts tremendous pressure on our resources and makes the need for newer and better technologies even more critical.'
What is proving elusive for Dr Singh is the sort of success that his home state, Punjab, achieved in the late 1960s, when Prof Swaminathan and other scientists helped bring about what is known as India's Green Revolution.
Using a combination of advanced farming techniques, fertilisers and a proactive public policy, Punjab's farm productivity rose from 600kg a hectare in the mid-1960s to more than 5 tonnes a hectare in the early 1970s.
Thanks to such initiatives, India, once considered dependent on handouts like United States- supplied grain, soon became self-sufficient in food.
However, farmers now say that level of productivity is no longer available, and they would be lucky to squeeze out 3.3 tonnes a hectare. And even that is achieved by using higher and higher amounts of urea fertiliser, disrupting the soil's ecology.
'The soil health is deteriorating, but we don't know how to make it better,'Mr Kamaljit Singh, a farmer from Punjab, told the Wall Street Journal. Farmers are stuck as more fertiliser is needed to make up for declining fertility of the soil, he said.
Worse, salinity levels of the land are rising even as the water table is dropping. In farmer Harmesh Singh's village in Punjab, 95 per cent of the farmers are in debt, mainly because they have to dig deeper borewells for water every few years, the Chandigarh Tribune newspaper reported this month.
If ever there was a time that India needed a second Green Revolution, it is now. That is why sharing advanced farming technology is a key element of the emerging India-US strategic relationship.
There are many reasons for agriculture's poor showing besides unreliable rains. Farm holdings are severely fragmented. Land ceilings prevent big industries from attempting industrial farming. As so many of its 1.2 billion people live off the land, politicians have pampered them with inefficient subsidies, ranging from free power to below-cost fertiliser. All this has a huge impact on farming efficiency.
To be sure, the solutions also stare India in the face. For instance, the small-sized holdings that arise out of fragmentation of land can be met by collective farming. Half a century ago, small milk farmers in Gujarat showed this was possible by setting up a cooperative that has now come to be recognised nationwide by the Amul brand of milk products, the world's biggest producer of packet milk.
There is no evidence that a similar attempt has been made in pooling land resources. Other things need fixing as well.
'A phased increase in fertiliser prices and economically rational user charges for irrigation electricity could raise resources to finance investment in rural infrastructure, benefiting both growth and equity,' said Dr Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairman of India's Planning Commission, which is chaired by Prime Minister Singh.
'Competitive populism makes it politically difficult to restructure subsidies in this way, but there is also no alternative solution in sight.'
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