A group of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) want the government to form a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) to investigate the Musang King durian plantation at Gunung Inas in Baling, Kedah.
They want the truth to be told to the public on behalf of those affected by the devastating mud floods on July 4 which killed three and displaced over 1,000 villagers.
They also hope that by exposing the truth, similar incidents elsewhere in the country can be prevented.
“There were numerous incidents of flooding and washing down of logs to Kampung Iboi, the village at the foothill.
“However, those were not serious and on July 4, it turned into a disaster as a huge amount of land has been cleared in the name of the Musang King plantation,” said Mohd Sobri Ramlee.
Sobri is a spokesperson for a coalition of 36 NGOs that call themselves BEACCH (Biodiversity, Environment, Agroecology, Climate Change, and Habitat).
In a joint press statement, they blamed governmental approval for the durian plantation and accused it of causing the floods earlier this month.
“We believe there was a transparent process of open tender for the project and this includes the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) valuation report in 2013 for Clone Rubber Trees and not for the Musang King Plantation.
“The Musang King was never listed under the Forest Estate Development programme by the Peninsular Malaysia Forestry Department and the Ministry of Plantation Industries and Commodities and the replanting was species of trees approved by the Forestry Department,” he said.
They want the government to cancel the Musang King plantation project to prevent future disasters from occurring and to prevent the loss of life of some 21,000 villagers living nearby.
He said the villagers have also called for action, saying how there has been a heavy downfall in the past 50 decades, sometimes for days, but there was never such a flood until the durian project in 2018.
Some NGOs under the BEACCH banner are Sahabat Alam Malaysia, Consumers Association of Malaysia, Agora Society of Malaysia, Gibbon Conservation Malaysia, Family Frontiers, Greenpeace Malaysia, Kelab Sahabat Alam Sik, Persatuan Pengamatan Air Pulau Pinang, as well as the Malaysian Nature Society Kedah and Selangor branches.
Sobri added that the coalition is completely against any proposal for durian tree or clone rubber tree projects in forest reserves anywhere in the country.
He also said he has been raising this issue since 2018, when the state-backed durian plantation began, as the villagers foresaw the risk of flooding due to unusually heavy rain.
“I have spoken to the media in 2018, about such incidents at Hulu Muda Forest Reserve and Rimba Teloi Reserved Forest as these were the catchment areas and the main source of water to Penang, Kedah, and Perlis.
“However, the fear has become a reality after four years and we have to prevent similar disasters in other areas,” he added. - Mkini
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.