Twentytwo13

Environmental disasters are caused by ‘those who approve projects’

Serious soil erosion, caused by the clearing of land for a mega durian plantation around Baling, Kedah, has been happening since 2018.

However, early warnings were ignored, said Biodiversity, Environment, Agroecology, Climate Change, Habitats (BEACCH) – an environmental cluster of the CSO Platform for Reform in Malaysia.

The musang king plantations around Gunung Inas were widely reported to be the cause of the recent flash floods that devastated several villages in Baling that left three dead and over 1,000 people displaced.

“Back in 2018, we went in and saw serious erosion after the hill forests had been cleared and terraced for a huge musang king project,” said Mohd Sobri Ramlee, training coordinator for the Kedah chapter of Pertubuhan Alam Sekitar Sejahtera (GRASS), which is part of BEACCH.

“Since then, floods have affected the villagers and damaged their rubber, oil palm, and fruit plantations. Their source of clean water from Gunung Inas has been polluted, not only with silt and mud, but also with pesticides and fertilisers used for the durians,” he added.

GRASS Kedah added that tourism at the Lata Celak waterfall, along with homestays in the area, have also been negatively impacted. The once-pristine waterfalls have now turned “brown”.

The clearing of forests is also believed to have driven wildlife, such as elephants, to encroach into villages, and damage crops.

In a statement, BEACCH said economic damage was also exacerbated by the “total shutdown” of the water supply to the Kulim Hi-Tech Park and Sungai Petani, due to the high sediment load in the river water.

Some of the biggest companies in the world are based at the Kulim Hi-Tech Park.

“This tragedy shows what can happen when deforestation of hills is combined with climate change … which has resulted in more extreme weather and heavier rainfall,” said Leela Panikkar, coordinator of BEACCH and director of Treat Every Environment Special.

“Even now, in the face of disaster, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Datuk Seri Takiyuddin Hassan said that no ‘active logging activities’ had been reported in the Gunung Inas Forest Reserve area that could have led to a water surge phenomenon.

“Instead, he said ‘forest development’ was being carried out for ‘reforestation purposes’ with over 5,000 trees planted. This ignores the fact that the area had been totally logged before to make way for the durian trees, now disguised as ‘reforestation’”.

GRASS Kedah highlighted several possible causes of the destructive floods. They include:

  • The durian project was done on hill slopes exceeding the recommended gradient limit of 25 per cent.
  • The sedimentation ponds broke, or were not built according to the Department of Environment standards.
  • In 2018, it was observed that the required buffer zones (between cleared land and the river) were not adhered to.
  • Lack of proper or constant monitoring by the authorities.

“These are all possible reasons why the terrible floods happened. We need a proper investigation to find out the real cause,” added Sobri.

“I am very sad because I have many friends in Kampung Iboi.

“We warned everyone about the musang king project for a long time. We repeated these warnings during the terrible floods that hit Yan, Kedah, last year,” he said.

GRASS Malaysia president, M. Yusaimi Md Yusof said future developments must involve public consultations before approval.

He added Environmental Impact Assessment reports should not only be made public, but the highly technical information inside should also be summarised to be easily understood by the public.

GRASS Kedah added there were several other environmental “time bombs” ticking away in the state, which must be addressed urgently.

The organisation says there’s massive deforestation in Ulu Muda, which may cause more disastrous floods, apart from harming the future water supply for both Kedah and Penang.

The other “eco time bomb”, according to the group, is the deforestation at Teloi Sik, near Sik, Kedah, while the quarries at Gunung Baling and Gunung Pulai will damage two beautiful tourist landmarks and add to the noise and dust pollution.

“We activists have been vocal about these environmental problems for a long time. But the authorities say that we are just bising (make noise), even calling us penghasut (instigators),” said Sobri.

“Disasters are not the fault of the rain, nor the trees, nor the mud. They are the fault of the hands that hold the pens to approve projects,” he added.