mns perak banner

Activities Report 1999 July Newsletter

Protecting the Catchment Area 
    The Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) welcomes the Selangor Menteri Besar YAB Datuk Seri Abu Hassan Omar’s statement to gazette the catchment area for upper Sungai Selangor.
    MNS also welcomes the move by the Selangor Government to turn all the other existing catchment dams and reservoirs into Protected Forest Reserve status. This move will ensure that the capacity of dams will not be reduced or polluted. Less money will be spent on maintenance and repairs, building dams or the cost of decommissioning them.
    The move towards the safety of the reservoir is a welcome measure. Since most of our reservoirs are easily accessible by the public. A suggestion will be to fence up the reservoir and patrol daily to  deter trespassers and illegal rubbish dumping, as per the case of the Semenyih Dam catchment area.
    The recommendations given on alternative measures to solve the water shortage situation have been look into by the Government, such as public education on reduction in usage of water, relocating high pollution risk industries to another area, zoning of land use along the river and the reduction of non-revenue water. The effort to bring down the 40% non-revenue water (NRW) to 25% is a welcome move, but this must be based on plugging the leaks.
    However, the implementation of a regulatory framework needs to be speeded up in view of the increasing water privatisation. Since the privatisation of water is monopolistic, the issues of safe, clean, and uninterrupted distribution of water, adherence to the standards  and pricing should be closely looked into by the Government.
    The move by the Department of Environment to ensure more enforcement by working closely with approving authorities to ensure better incorporation of environmental considerations in their approval will be a step towards ensuring the development more socially responsible developers.
    MNS would therefore like to see more of these favourable steps taken by the authorities to ensure that the catchment areas is protected and monitored, the alternatives suggested to be looked into, and developers become more socially responsible.       Kuala Lumpur, 24 March, 1999

Back to 1999 July Newsletter index 
[ Back to MNS Perak Home ]
Created on 30th June 1999