Environmentalists plead for Kedah, Penang to begin talks over water feud

 

An environmental coalition has called on government heads of Kedah and Penang as well as Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin to begin mediated talks between the two states over a water feud. 

In an open letter addressed to the three parties, the Friends of Ulu Muda (Foum) made the plea amid increasing friction between the two state governments on the right to draw raw water from Sungai Muda for use as water supply for the Kedah and Penang people. 

"Amongst other things, the Kedah state government has plans to divert and store water from Sungai Muda which would result in a reduction in the quantity of water that reaches the intake point for Penang’s water supply.

"The Penang state government, on the other hand, is planning for a multi-million ringgit project to pipe in water from Perak through the Sungai Perak Raw Water Transfer Scheme as an alternative to water from Sungai Muda.

"This is in addition to the millions of ringgit already spent to enlarge Penang’s Mengkuang Dam which is basically a giant holding tank for Sungai Muda water," said the environmentalists in a letter signed by Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM) president Meenakshi Raman on behalf of the Foum secretariat.

They added that as the river issue continues, the headwaters of Sungai Muda - the Greater Ulu Muda Forest - remains under threat from land clearing, logging and mining. 

Kedah Menteri Besar Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor (left) and Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow

The battle over raw water needs to be put aside and the two state governments should discuss and negotiate how to protect and share the resource in a collaborative manner, said the group, in calling on Kedah Menteri Besar Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor and Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow to come to the table.

The group includes the Consumers’ Association of Penang, GreenSmiths, Malaysian Cave & Karst Conservancy, Langkawi and Penang branches of the Malaysian Nature Society, Persatuan Primatologi Malaysia, Pertubuhan Pelindung Khazanah Alam, SAM, Sahabat Alam Sik, Society for Conservation Biology Malaysia Chapter, The Habitat Foundation, Treat Every Environment Special and Water Watch Penang.

The statement was also co-signed by 34 other civil society organisations who also urged both parties to come to a compromise.

"While Penang may have the legal rights to extract raw water from its side of Sungai Muda, it is to its long-term benefit to help Kedah to protect the Greater Ulu Muda Forest.

"The Greater Ulu Muda Forest provides ecosystem services in capturing rainwater, filtering it and regulating its release into the streams and rivers that eventually drain into Sungai Muda.

"The millions of ringgit that would be spent on diverting and building water storage facilities would be better spent on protecting and maintaining the Greater Ulu Muda Forest which is already providing the ecosystem services," the group said.

They added that the river water originating from the Greater Ulu Muda Forest does not belong exclusively to anyone but is a shared resource that is of critical importance for the drinking water supply to Kedah, Penang and Perlis, the irrigation of the rice bowl of the country and a key driver for sustainable development.

In order to move forward, Foum proposed that the two state governments take the following key steps:

1. Appoint an independent, competent, trusted and neutral mediator to facilitate the discussion between the two state governments.
2. Consult experts on water-based Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) to provide technical advice on how to set up a PES scheme for the Sungai Muda water catchment area.
3. Discuss and come to a mutual agreement on the PES scheme whereby the major users (beneficiaries) of Sungai Muda water contribute funds to the protection of the critical water catchment of the river (ie the Greater Ulu Muda Forest). Protection activities should include gazetting the entire area as a state or national park; patrolling and enforcement against encroachment and wildlife hunting; forest cover monitoring; and environmental education and awareness activities.
4. An Ulu Muda conservation trust fund should be established to manage the funds received for the protection of the Greater Ulu Muda Forest.

The group added that a board of trustees should be appointed to oversee the management of the trust fund and should consist of key stakeholders including the owners and managers of the natural resources (ie the Kedah state government and key agencies involved in the water catchment protection) and the major water users that contribute to the fund (including the Penang government and the private sector). 

It should also include representatives of the federal government responsible for natural resources, land use planning, agriculture and finance, representatives of civil society such as NGOs and those from research institutions, they said. 

Apart from that, Foum said the board of trustees should collectively agree on how the funds should be used for the purpose of water catchment protection.

"The time to act is now in order to secure and maintain our water resources for the future as we face increasing impacts from environmental deterioration, pandemics and climate change," added the group. - Mkini