I refer to the letter,
Who do we blame for water woes?
by S. Param in which he alluded that the current water shortage cannot
be totally caused by the unpredictable weather as a consequence of
global warming. Politicians playing their usual politics have also been a
significant reason, he maintains, and the 6 year delay on the Langat-2
dam is evidence of that.
While I agree with him that this could be true, the
Langat-2 tunnel project is just a project made necessary due to decades
of blatant exploitation of our natural resources and wanton destruction
of our limited forest reserves and catchment areas that has brought on
the current plight.
In addition to taking steps like the Langat2 tunnel to
overcome our water shortages, we must also be vigilant to other
exploitative efforts by insensitive politicians and ever greedy business
cronies to inflict further long term damage to our environment with
direct consequence to our future ability to have sufficient drinking
water.
In today's report in The Star,
Better jams now than no water,
environmental groups have expressed serious concern at the imminent
expressway project KLORR that will cut through Selangor's water
catchment areas and forest reserves. The project, if pushed through by
unscrupulous politicians and business cronies, will have the material
effect of reducing our water catchment capacity, not to mention the
destruction of pristine forests and the loss of diminishing wildlife.
The Forest Research Institute also expressed its consternation in an
earlier report
FRIM comes under threat
Malaysians, and politicians, must wake up to the fact
that we cannot continue to have more "Langat-X" type projects to keep
our citizens satiated. The destruction of forest reserves (set up for
the good of future generations) will cause drastically reduced water
retention in the local situation, and will even contribute to global
warming in the international context.
Progress and development must be made in tune with Mother Nature, or we suffer its wrath!