Malaysia: Walks in the park no more?

WORRYING: Malaysians are running out of recreational areas fast, no thanks to disappearing parks, hills and forest reserves, all in the name of development, writes Arman Ahmad
New Straits Times 8 Jul 12;

VISIT Taman Tasik Titiwangsa on a weekend and you will realise just how congested it has become. Cars choke the roads circling the lake as people jostle about trying to jog, walk or just to have a picnic with their children.

Taman Metropolitan Kepong is much larger, but the place is crowded as well. The parking spaces are packed and cars spill out onto the highway for hundreds of metres.

With a population fast approaching two million, people in the Klang Valley are trying hard to find a place to spend their weekends.

And it's not just the city limits that are packed. In Semenyih, Broga Hill has become a favourite for hikers. Yet, it is congested, too.

There is a great demand for recreational space, said Liew Khooi Cheng, chairman of Friends of Bukit Kiara (FoBK), which was set up to save the green lung located in the city.

Urbanisation has eroded public places and now, there is hardly any space left for recreation.

What little green areas left are fervently protected by the people living nearby and their resident associations. But frequently, pressure from developers and businesses eventually result in these places being lost, or significantly reduced.

Bukit Kiara is a case in point. For 20 years, residents have been raising a hue and cry about development in the area.

Recently, the government had agreed to gazette 189ha as permanent green area. This, from the original 647ha which was part of the area between 40 and 50 years ago.

Originally, Bukit Kiara was designated as a public park, but over the years, its land area had diminished. Part of it has now become housing estates.

Following a meeting in May, the National Landscape Department has decided to fence up the area. According to Liew, the authorities said it would allow for better enforcement in the area.

With the fence up, cyclists, joggers and equestrian riders can enter only through a gate, which will be open from 7am to 7pm.

However, he said, nothing much could be done for the areas that had not been gazetted as a green lung.

He said efforts to save Bukti Kiara started with FoBK, which had lobbied for the preservation of the green lung more than 20 years ago. However, the petition to the authorities was submitted only in May 2007.

He said about 3,000 people visited Bukit Kiara on a weekday and the figure increased to 5,000 on weekends.

"People are looking for recreational areas. Now, they are even visiting the Ayer Hitam Forest Reserve and Taman Tun Dr Ismail. Demand is great for recreational areas."

But not everyone is pleased with what is going on in Bukit Kiara.

Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) president Prof Dr Maketab Mohamed has expressed disappointment at how the park is being developed into a "Taman Awam Berskala Besar" (a large-scale public park).

In an open letter on the Malaysian Nature Society Facebook page, Maketab said MNS was disappointed with the development in Bukit Kiara.

"We have observed large-scale tree felling in Bukit Kiara in order to set up a 3.5m security fence.

"Heavy machinery is now being used to clear a 30-foot wide access road through the park."

He said contractors engaged by the department had cleared up 4.7km of the area.

"This week, they will clear 2,000 square metres of hillside.

"In the end, an estimated 3,000 trees would have been destroyed to build a fence and road on 2.8ha of forest land."

To add insult to injury, the fence will block the movement of wildlife.

Maketab said the plans appeared not to have taken due consideration of the sensitive environment of the park. The road and fence had already led to massive earthworks that threatened the pristine water body in the heart of the park and all points downstream along Sungai Ulu Pencala.

He said other questionable aspects of the development plan included the proposal to set aside part of the park for the planting of high-value commercial crops, such as cinnamon, tongkat ali and agarwood trees. Part of the park had been zoned out to be planted with African and South American trees.

"It is hard to see the point of these initiatives which threaten to displace local indigenous species that are the natural and rightful flora and fauna of Bukit Kiara."

Despite the goings-on, Bukit Kiara residents have achieved some success in saving their green lung. The same cannot be said for residents elsewhere in the city.

Bukit Gasing, for one, is more unfortunate than Bukit Kiara. It stretches across the two city councils of Petaling Jaya and Kuala Lumpur. Whilst the Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ) has preserved most of Bukit Gasing on their side, the Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) side has undergone much development.

"DBKL plans to gazette only about 45 per cent of Bukit Gasing that comes under its jurisdiction.

"A number of development projects approved by it has caused concern among residents because of their effects on the environment and congestion in the area," said Joint Action Group for Bukit Gasing committee member Gary Yeoh.

He said the KL side of Bukit Gasing was now in danger of being diminished as many areas had been developed for the construction of high-end bungalows.

On the fringes of the Klang Valley, Taman Melawati residents have managed to stave off construction on one of the green lungs in their area.

In May 2007, regulars who trekked up the hill in Phase III Taman Melawati were shocked to find a notice at the gate stating that a company had applied to develop the hill.

"This was one of the last green lungs left in Taman Melawati and the residents were horrified that this hill would be ravaged in the name of development, just like the other slopes near Taman Melawati that have been bulldozed and cleared," said Taman Melawati Resident's Association secretary Dr Faridah Jalil Safwan.

"The extensive development on hill slopes in the area over the last 20 years is alarming. What used to be beautiful green hills were stripped of all vegetation and levelled in some areas to build high- end homes. Many of the projects were given wholesale approval without giving residents the opportunity to voice their objections."

She said residents were concerned about the safety of such projects in view of the many incidents of landslides in the Hulu Klang area, such as Highland Towers and Bukit Antarabangsa.

Following several months of hearings at the Ampang Jaya Municipal Council and the Selangor Appeals Board, the council rejected the application to renew the planning permission.

This occurred after the massive landslide at Bukit Antarabangsa four years ago.

However, Dr Faridah said the hill was still not safe from new applications for development as a large portion of it was private land.

Another major threat to the hills and forest in the area is the KL Outer Ring Road project (KLORR).

"Although the latest proposed alignment is outside Taman Melawati, we are still very concerned because of the proposed tunnel under the Klang Gates Quartz Ridge as it will run across the many streams that feed into the Klang Gates reservoir. The road will also be on elevated land and traverse the Selangor State Park."

Poser over quartz ridge tunnels

IT is not just green lungs in residential estates that are threatened by development. Even gazetted state parks and geological monuments, worthy of being Unesco heritage sites, face the prospect of being cut through.

The proposed East Klang Valley Expressway (Kuala Lumpur Outer Ring Road Eastern Route or EKVE) involves the construction and operation of a tolled expressway linking the Kajang SILK Highway (E18) at the southern side to the Karak Expressway (E8) at the northern side of the expressway.

The proposed project has upset residents living within the vicinity of the expressway as the proposed alignment will cut through Taman Warisan Negeri Selangor (TWNS) and will see tunnels being built through the famous Klang Gates Quartz Ridge.

Christa Hashim, director of Treat Every Environment Special (TrEES), an environmental non-governmental organisation, said the project would create many environmental problems in the area.

The Detailed Environmental Impact Assessment (DEIA) report states that the proposed alignment will traverse the Hulu Gombak, Ampang and Hulu Langat Forest Reserves over a length of 18.5km, affecting a 214.7ha area.

"However, when categorising the land use of the affected areas, the report makes no mention that the Hulu Gombak and Ampang Forest Reserves as well as the Klang Gates Quartz Ridge are part of TWNS.

"As a state park, TWNS is a protected area, classified as an Environmentally Sensitive Area (ESA) Rank 1 under the National Physical Plan 2005 (NPP). According to this plan, the management of ESA Rank 1 follows the criteria that no development, agriculture or logging shall be permitted except for low-impact nature tourism, research and education."

Both the Hulu Gombak and Ampang Forest Reserves are also classified as water catchment forests under the National Forestry Act Selangor Enactment 2005 as well as the Lembaga Urus Air Selangor Enactment 1999.

The EKVE will cut across part of the Hulu Gombak Forest Reserve, upstream of the Klang Gates dam. This could affect the water quality in the reservoir, especially during the construction of the EKVE.

Water-catchment forests are meant to be kept pristine because of their importance. Given that the Klang Gates dam is a main source of water supply to Kuala Lumpur commercial districts, any disruption would be a major disaster.

The Klang Gates Quartz Ridge, which is purported to be the longest quartz in the word, is a key feature of Taman Warisan Negeri Selangor. The ridge has also been earmarked as a Unesco heritage site by the present state government.

Under the proposed project, two tunnels, 15m apart and about 200m in length, will be burrowed through the quartz ridge.

Christa questioned whether the ridge would qualify as a Unesco heritage site after the tunnels are built.

"The construction of the tunnels through the ridge will also be a new experience for engineers.

"Many questions are being asked about the construction of these tunnels and how they will be monitored," she said, adding that the construction of the tunnel could damage the ridge.

"The ridge is very steep at above 60 degrees and loose materials from it will be extremely dangerous to traffic. There is potential for fractures in the ridge which, if not contained properly, could lead to seepage/leaks potentially impacting the Klang Gate Dam integrity. This has to be investigated thoroughly as the consequences can be disastrous."