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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