Activities Report 1999 July Newsletter
Gravel Extraction from Rivers
There are thousands of river systems in
Malaysia and some of these rivers are extracted for sand, gravel and boulders.
With the ease of accessing these rivers, there is a difficulty in guarding
against illegal extractors.
The extraction of river materials other
than minerals comes under the sand mining extraction permits and a royalty
will be paid to the State together with TOL fees. The extraction will usually
need the recommendation of the Drainage and Irrigation Department or the
Forestry Department. A lot of royalty will be lost if there is illegal
extraction from rivers and damage unquantifiable. There is a need for more
surveillance by the different agencies and departments along these rivers.
Enforcement comes from the State
Land Department. The penalty can be compounded. The fine will be less than
RM10,000 or a year jail or both, but this is low in relation to the returns
from the business. Fines should be higher to act as a deterrent for future
cases.
There are reasons for the need to protect
these river materials from being over extracted. Firstly, the aquatic environment
and the riparian plants beside the river will be damaged and in some case
will be irreversible. Aquatic animals and plants will be dredged out and
the habitat destroyed. Some fishes need the rocks as a shelter and anchor
to go upstream. They may also lay their eggs on the pebbles and feed on
the algae or plants attached on the gravel. Secondly, the extraction
will make depressions and deepens the channel. This will affect the river
flow, erode the riverbanks, creating eddies and turbulence. Finally, the
gravel and sand acts as a natural water filtration for rivers.
There is also a pressing situation on
the extraction of crystals from limestone caves nowadays. People have been
collecting crystals for their beauty and ‘power’. The collection will damage
the caves and the main attraction of eco-tourism. Collecting crystals will
also disturb the cave dwellers especially the vulnerable bats, which if
disturbed will set them flying into each other. Bats are important for
successful fruit pollination and insect control.
Natural resources such as these are
exhaustible and need to be used wisely. Damage to the environment is irreversible
and the relevant authorities should take firm punitive action against parties
flouting the regulations. A laudable example is the MPAJ’s decision to
take an errant developer to court over violations in Bukit Sungai Seputeh
Kuala Lumpur, 5 May 1999
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Created on 30th June 1999