Last Sunday(29th March,1998)
I register myself for the 1998 Workshop on River Management in Selangor
at De Palma Inn at a
nice quiet town
called Kuala Selangor,some 60km from KL.(Kuala Lumpur).It was officiated
by the Chief Minister of Selangor and by coincidence also Kuala Selangor
is his political contituency.
Personally,I agree with the choice of the venue for at least I can get out of KL,where nearly half a million of us have been suffering the agony of not knowing when our taps will run dry or flowing.Lately,we are supposed to get our water on every alternate day,however some 20% of the households have not received water from their taps for days.A friend commented that he has doubts whether we could develop the Multimedia Super Corridor(MSC) for a simple reason that we can’t even get our tap water running?
As a resident of the
Klang Valley,my family and me have suffered the water shortages for the
past two weeks.It has been reported everyday in our local papers,except
that no immediate actions have been taken to reduce our sufferings.Once
again (like last year’s haze and traffic congestion in KL),our Deputy
Prime Minister had to intervene by calling a meeting last Monday to get
various agencies to put their acts together effectively. A similar incidence
has taken place less than 6 months ago last year.Some people never learn,so
history had to repeat itself!! Even
my 9 years old son has asked me to go back to our kampung (village) where
we still have water from the well.
The Workshop:
River management(or mismanagement?)
As usual ,I took the opportunity to visit the local attractions in Kuala Selangor-Bukit Malawati and Kampung Kuantan fireflies.Bukit Malawati is quite historic hill and Kampung Kuantan is very unique place at night with its “kelip-kelip”(fireflies).On my next trip,I shall bring my family along so that they can appreciate the fireflies lighting the berembang tress like X'mas trees and the river ecology.How about you and your family members going for a river cruise at night?It is a view to remember,but it is not like cruising the River Seine in Paris…Just call 03-8892403 for more information.
The objectives of the
Workshop is to get suggestions and opinions for the setting up of a river
authority, may be similar to UK National River Authority.The idea was mooted
by our Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir Muhammad some two years ago and
this week we are still talking on how to go about it . Sungai Selangor
is earmarked for the pilot project for Intergrated River Management Systems.The
main speaker informed us that there are 12 government departments
involved in various aspects of river management.No wonder,there are only
two “clean” rivers left in Selangor.Too many cooks spoilt the broth.By
the time we get our acts together,it will cost a fortune to clean our rivers.Just
read the report on Malacca river rehabilitation works and you will really
understand…
From the statistics,97%
of our drinking water water comes from the rivers.There are about 150 rivers
in Malaysia and not many can be considered clean.Reading the DOE reports
is frightening!!.According to Indah water Konsortium(IWK),not even one
of their 5200 wastewater treatments are able to treat ammonia.It
will cost them RM60m just to upgrade 100 plants.The contamination of Sungai
Langat by ammonia is a good example how polluted
are our rivers and how dependence are we on our rivers for our source of
raw water.For now it will cost us RM 10 million a month to reduce our sufferings
due to the current water crisis in the Klang Valley.I am quite sure,it
will cost the government billions of ringgit to undertake inter-basin water
transfers and national water grids in the future(may be soon).Just for
comparison, Puncak Niaga Sdn. Bhd needs to spend about RM1 billion to provide
inter-connectivity between various pipe networks with each other and to
replace old leaking pipes in Selangor and KL only.Everyone of us will be
paying for this,not to mention our children and grandchildren will be paying
a lot more for water in the future.
In Febuary last year(1997),I have written a personal letter to my friends involved in water supply about an incidence of dead fish in the river due to pollution and asking them what they are going to do about it?A few called back and one took the trouble to install a water quality monitoring station.I observe very little proactive actions and very slow reaction to manage a crisis situation.
To my dear friends out there especially those in the water supply and waste water authorities/corporations:
”Please convince our political masters that our very existence depends on WATER,and WATER comes from the rivers.If we don’t have adequate treatable raw water in the rivers,we are going to have a really BIG PROBLEM.NO RIVERS,NO WATER AND NO LIFE.”
Our very own civilisation depends on water.Let’s remind ourselves that all major world civilisations started from rivers Tigris, Euphratus,Indus,Nile and Hwang Ho.All of us are responsible to protect our rivers not only for us but for the future generations.These rivers do not belong to us.They were passed to us from the previous generation for us to pass to the next generation.Don’t let dirty rivers destroy our nation!!(We can blame the currency speculators for our present economic crisis,but when it comes to water,all the fingers are pointing at us).
From my limited knowledge of the industry,we have adequate rules and regulations.I came to a simple conclusion-the rules were not adequately and effectively enforced.And when we have a water crisis,we react s.l.o.w.l.y.As far as I am concern,when it comes to water,there is no compromise..
The clean rivers that
we used to swim and catch fish only now exist in our memory and our
children are denied the fun that we were used to…