KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 25: Some of the recent floods in the Gombak area, such as in Sungai Chinchin where 21 homes were affected and the residents had to be evacuated and given temporary shelter, could have been avoided, said pro tem secretary of Green Party Malaysia, Abdul Razak Ismail.
The Selangor state government recently attributed the floods to the ongoing construction of the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) that cuts across a forest reserve area in the state.
Selangor Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Aminuddin Baki was quoted saying that the Sg Chinchin victims, living in a low lying areas, faced the risk of floods and would be now temporarily housed elsewhere during the entire duration of the project.
He also said several other actions would be taken to counter the issue of noise pollution, air pollution in the affected areas brought on by the project following a meeting with local authorities. A retention pond is also expected to be built in the area.
“Environmentalists had been warning about such consequences right from the start and had called for stringent monitoring of the ECRL project and its possible impacts in some places. They had raised the concerns of floods due to poor clearing of the forested areas that had made way for the project.
“Even the Orang Asli people living in the Hulu Gombak areas had complained about how the streams leading to the Gombak River swelled up during heavy rains as they were filled with remnants of fallen trees and other debris from the construction works for the rail link.”
While the upstream areas are less affected, the downstream areas bear the brunt of improper clearing of debris brought on by the construction activities.
Many questions have also remained unanswered over the year such as how the encroachment into the Selangor state forest park, namely the Hulu Gombak and the Serendah Forest Reserve areas, were even allowed and what were the recommendations of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report from the Department of Environment.
The departments and agencies responsible for taking of the forest areas have been also lackadaisical in monitoring the project’s environmental impact on the affected areas, Razak said.
In March last year, Razak also called on the owner of the ECRL project, Malaysia Rail Link Sdn Bhd, to closely monitor the project.
The construction of a stretch of the ECRL in the Gombak State Forest Park in Selangor, is said to have been made possible by the-right of way given by the Forestry Department for the works despite an existing Selangor state moratorium on logging in forest reserves.
Local scientist Dr. Lim Teck Wyn had called for representation from civil societies on the committees that manage state forest parks to ensure that these forest reserves remain free from encroachment and are better conserved..
During a visit last year to the ECRL construction site in Gombak where a tunnel was being built, Lim said that while mitigation efforts have been taken to control damages at the area, they were not sufficient, pointing out several areas that had been damaged and opened to erosion and how the silt could end up in a stream running below.
“The stream water is clear now but it will not stay the same when rain brings down the open and loose sediment into the stream.
“The monitoring is not sufficient as the covers used to shield the exposed ground are torn and rainwater will push down mud from the exposed areas,” he had warned.
— WE