Garbage-choked Sungai Pencala is a sad reflection of how Malaysians treat their rivers and lakes. Now, however, they have been given a chance to redeem themselves, ELIZABETH JOHN writes.
THE easiest thing to do when something goes wrong is to point a finger. Preferably at anyone but ourselves. Nothing exemplifies this better than the troubles plaguing our rivers and lakes.
Users argue that catchment areas are poorly protected, enforcement against polluters weak, and waterways and supply systems badly managed. Tap water is undrinkable and authorities must be crazy for suggesting rate hikes, they always say.
It may well be true, but have water users done any better?
Take a typical urban river like Sungai Penchala, for instance. At its headwaters in Taman Bukit Kiara, Kuala Lumpur, it is a collection of crystal clear streams that trickle down the slopes of the hill, forming cool glassy pools which are transparent to their sandy bottom. There is life everywhere. Tiny mosquito fish flit back and forth busily, stone flies hide in dark corners beneath cool rocks, water striders skate the surface of the streams to a rhythm all their own and there is even a prawn or two around.
Even as these streams lazily wind their way through the landscaped park, they begin to suffer discolouration from sediment and fertiliser used there. It is but the first sign of their sad descent into the fetid cesspools they eventually become. Once the river flows past the gates of this little piece of paradise into the suburbs and city beyond, its features change rapidly.
For starters, the river has been converted from a free-flowing body of water into a concrete channel, making it look like a mammoth drain. Almost 70 per cent of the river looks like this, says Department of Irrigation and Drainage (DID) district engineer Azmi Ibrahim.
By the time it reaches Section 19 in Petaling Jaya, Selangor, some 10km away, the waters are forced to slow and flow around islands of rubbish. The crystal-clear river has turned murky, pockets of oil dot its surface and it has begun to emit a foul odour.On the banks which have not been turned into concrete, plastic bags, polystyrene containers, kitchen waste and other household waste cascade into the river like a waterfall.
Clearing it is a necessary but frustrating exercise, says Azmi. It costs RM200,000 to clean up a 20km stretch and, inevitably, the rubbish magically reappears moments after it is swept away. And users wonder why they have to pay more for water.
The suburban areas are where the discharge from restaurants, car workshops and construction end up in the river. Azmi has even seen trucks nonchalantly tipping over their loads of refuse directly into the river.
As it rushes through Section 13 and 14, Sungai Penchala acquires some prime industrial waste. At points along the way, black streams of sewage pour out of holes in the concrete wall, sullying the river further.
Azmi says the national sewerage company Indah Water Consortium, used to have 62 treatment plants along this river which were sub-standard. They are now being upgraded. Septic tanks in old housing schemes are not well-maintained and waste from some homes lead straight into drains.
But it is at the river’s end, 12km from pristine Bukit Kiara, that Sungai Penchala is in its most pitiful state. At the confluence of the two rivers, along Kampung Penaga, Sungai Penchala is unrecognisable.
Having collected industrial effluents, rubbish, sewage, motorcycles and a computer or two on its journey, it has turned a lovely hue of brown-green-black in some places and gurgles with bubbles that balloon and pop in others. For the most part, however, it is a dull, lifeless, grey. The stench is awesome. It will blow you away.
In terms of water quality, on a scale of I to V, where V is worst, the river rates II at its source and V at its end. An ambitious project is now under way which will give water users the opportunity to show that they can make a change: To succeed precisely where they say the authorities have failed and turn these beasts into beauties again.
Conceived by non-governmental organisation Global Environment Centre, the Community Participation in River Management project involves Sungai Penchala and the Kelana Jaya Lakes project in Selangor, Nenggiri River Basin in Kelantan and Salut-Mengkabung lagoon in Sabah.
These are to become the model projects for community participation in managing waterways. Sungai Penchala also has the added honour of being Selangor’s river of choice for the “One State One River” programme where the main objective is to improve water quality in the river and manage it in an integrated manner. The three-year project is focused on facilitating the establishment of two-way communication between communities and decision-makers in developing appropriate solutions and management plans for river maintenance.
Just last month, the GEC held discussions with residents’ associations of Taman Tun Dr Ismail near the Bukit Kiara park and Section 19. Both expressed interest in participating. In Kelana Jaya, community participation has already taken off on the project to rehabilitate the lakes. The Friends of Kelana Jaya Park, a club with 130 registered members founded for this project, has participated in several cleaning-up activities since the project was launched in 2002.
While response has been good, we are still far away from the day when residents take charge of public spaces like these, and seeing that things are done the way they should be, says GEC’s Dr K. Kalithasan.
The project idea was developed under the Petaling Jaya Local Agenda 21. The Petaling Jaya Municipal Council, the Global Environment Centre and Persatuan Memancing Malaysia (PeMM) are working together on it. They hope to promote rehabilitation of the three lakes at the park and enhance local community involvement in lake management and monitoring.
One of the most popular green lungs in Petaling Jaya, the lakes were once mining pools in the Sungai Damansara River Basin and were developed by MPPJ as part of the Kelana Jaya Municipal Park in 1996. They still retain their original function of flood retention ponds to this day. The lakes have lost much of the natural vegetation that once surrounded them, and have been polluted by waste from surrounding areas.Drains leading to them were filled with kitchen waste from neighbouring households and restaurants.
Untreated sewage was, for a time, being discharged into the lake from a dysfunctional waste oxidation pond nearby and local fauna and flora were disappearing, says Kalithasan. A rapid assessment in 2002 confirmed that the lake was highly polluted and was filled with non-native species of fish which were more tolerant to pollution, he adds.
Almost 70 per cent of the waste collected is household waste, says Badrulzaman Jaafar who works with the council’s landscape department and oversees much of the physical rehabilitation of the park. It costs the council RM24,000 a month to clear waste and maintain the park, but it is open to all residents for free.
“We wait for comments and we could do with some help,” says Badrulzaman. “Our hope is that people will stop using the lakes as a place to dump their rubbish and will claim it as a part of their community space with pride,” he says. If we cannot respond to that, we have only ourselves to point fingers at.
* The visit to Sungai Penchala and Kelana Jaya Lakes was part of the First Malaysian Water Week.