Water quality at Tasik Chini clean, assures Pahang DOE

 

Pahang’s Department of Environment (DOE) has assured that the water quality of Tasik Chini is classified as clean, following allegations that the lake had become polluted.

The average reading of the parameters measured for Tasik Chini’s water quality between 2020 and March 2021 shows that it still falls under the ‘clean’ category, it said in a statement on Facebook today.

The main parameters it measured were concentration of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), suspended solids (SS), ammoniacal nitrogen (AN) and iron (Fe).

The readings for the parameters fell within Class I or Class II of the National Water Quality Standards for Malaysia.

The DOE said the data was taken from 15 water quality monitoring stations at Tasik Chini, which tests the water quality at the lake every month.

As such, the department assured the public the water quality at the lake is safe for all living things, especially wildlife in the lake.

In collaboration with the Pahang Matriculation College, the state DOE said they have released a Tasik Chini Water Quality Profile 2016-2020 last October.

This profile will be open for public perusal at the Pahang DOE office, it added.

Last week, Malaysiakini reported that the Pahang government had given approval to a royalty-linked company to carry out mining operations 3km away from the lake, prompting outrage from environmentalists.

The report led to worrisome speculations over water quality in Tasik Chini due to the deforestation and mining activities around the lake.

Tasik Chini and its surrounding forests were recognized as a Unesco biosphere reserve in 2009 and were gazetted as a permanent forest reserve by the Pahang state government in 2019.

In a separate statement today, Kuantan MP Fuziah Salleh urged the Pahang DOE to release all the water quality data collected by the 15 monitoring stations at Tasik Chini so that they can be used as ‘baseline’ readings.

She also urged them to display to the public the water quality readings from all 15 stations every month, so that the rakyat can assess the impact of the mining around the lake.

“We demand such commitment from the Pahang state government if they want to prove that they are committed in the efforts to preserve and conserve the environment as well as the Unesco biosphere reserve, as promised,” Fuziah said. - Mkini