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