Pahang gazettes nearly 259,000ha as water catchment area - MB

 

Pahang has gazetted 258,951.88 hectares of land in the state to serve as a water catchment area.

Menteri Besar Wan Rosdy Wan Ismail (above) said the state government has always given priority to forest conservation and water catchment areas, whereby the forest area in the state is now 57 percent more than the state land area.

"However, to gazette an area, it takes a long time. It requires a thorough study... but the government will step up efforts to increase the forest reserve area in Pahang,” he said, adding that Lubuk Yu, in Maran, is the latest area to be gazetted for the purpose.

Wan Rosdy said this in response to a question from Mohd Zakhwan Ahmad Badarddin (PAS-Tahan) on the number of areas that have been gazetted as water catchment areas in the state assembly today.

Meanwhile, State Agriculture, Agro-based Industry and Biotechnology Committee chairperson Mohd Soffi Abd Razak said those who had been issued with a temporary occupation licence (TOL) should know that the licence could be terminated at any time.

“They are not allowed to build permanent structures or plant permanent crop on the land because the government has the right to terminate the TOL, if there is a need to take back the land,” he said in response to a supplementary question from Chow Yu Hui (Harapan-Tras). 

Chow wanted to know whether the durian farmers in Tras, Raub, whose TOL had been terminated to make way for the construction of a durian processing factory, would be compensated.

He also asked whether the Department of Environment had approved the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report for the factory, built by Royal Pahang Durian Resources-Perbadanan Kemajuan Pertanian Pahang (RPDR-PKPP) in an area covering 10.52 hectare.

Mohd Soffi said the EIA report was not required in the construction of the factory because the area involved was less than the area required for the purpose, apart from the Raub District Council having approved the planning of the project after the parties involved met technical aspects.

- Bernama