Muhyiddin Sad Land Clearing Of Cameron Highlands Still Occur During Enforcement Ops

CAMERON HIGHLANDS, Feb 3 (Bernama) -- Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin today expressed his sadness with the continuous intrusion in Cameron Highlands despite enforcement operations.

The Deputy Prime Minister said what was more worrying was that the culprits were blatantly challenging the authorities and if it continued, he did not know how long the highlands would last.

"I am very upset. When you look closer, some of the land covered in plastic is agriculture land which have been cleared even while enforcement is being carried out.

"I have been here two days and see Cameron Highlands severely damaged, and if no stern and effective action is taken, I do not know how long this area will last," he said.

He was speaking to reporters after a surprise visit to Cameron Highlands to review the latest recovery development and inspection of the authorities following the floods and landslide at the holiday destination in November last year.

Muhyiddin, who is also chairman of the Special Committee on Flash Floods in Cameron Highlands, said although more than 500 officers and staff from various departments and agencies were involved in the operations to clean up the land, he said these were not enough as the land-clearing was severe and had a worrying effect on the environment.

However, he said, the enforcement would be more effective by increasing the number of enforcers and equipment as well as implementing the law under the Land and Mines Department or the Forestry Department.

Muhyiddin said among the measures which could be implemented was creating permanent posts in the areas which had been identified as focal places for intrusion.

He said the matter would be decided after obtaining the views of Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar and Armed Forces Chief Tan Sri Zulkifeli Mohd Zin as well as the Pahang state government at the next meeting of the Special Committee on the Flash Floods in Cameron Highlands.

This would ensure tighter monitoring was carried out to prevent further intrusions into the highlands, he said.

To prevent future threats to the authorities, the deputy prime minister said he would be suggesting that the areas where these frequently happened be gazetted as security areas.

"This move must be further studied such as the need for a special force to patrol the areas from intrusions and preventing intruders from entering them," he said.

Asked if efforts to revert Cameron Highlands' glory as a tourist attraction could be attained soon, Muhyiddin said he was not optimistic this could be done.

"At this stage, I am not optimistic, until the enforcement efforts against intrusions have been fully carried out," he said.

The flood and landslide in Kampung Raja, Pekan Ringlet and Bertam Valley in Cameron Highlands on Nov 5 claimed five lives, with more than 90 victims from 28 families being evacuated to the relief centres.

The illegal land clearing was believed to have been a factor causing the flood and landslide in the highlands.

-- BERNAMA

Compulsory for Malaysians to separate rubbish from next year

The plan for all households to do mandatory solid waste separation at source looks set to begin in September next year.

All Malaysian households will have to separate their solid waste according to categories, the Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government ministry announced today.

In a statement, its minister Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan said that this mandatory move will see household solid waste be separated in several compositions including plastic, paper, cardboard, glass, metal, food waste, lump waste and farm waste.

"The collection of the separated waste will be implemented according to a schedule which will be determined by a concession company that will be appointed," he said.

The concept, he added, has been fully implemented in states that use Act 672 of the Solid Waste Management and Public Cleansing Act 2007, that is Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya, Kuantan, Johor, Melaka, Negeri Sembilan, Perlis dan Kedah from September 2014.

In 2009, Alam Flora chief executive officer Zahri Abdul Ghani had said that it would begin in June that year in Kuala Lumpur, with two rubbish bins given to each household in the federal territory to separate organic from inorganic waste.

Zahri had said that failure to separate waste into the correct bins would result in uncollected rubbish.

Then, in 2011, the then housing and local government minister Datuk Seri Chor Chee Heung said the household waste segregation system would begin the following year in stages.

It has taken some time for household waste separation at source to be implemented across the board, as local by-laws had to be streamlined.

In his statement today, Rahman also said that the National Solid Waste Management Department will launch campaigns, awareness programmes and education nationwide.

The government will also ensure that solid waste management facilities and operation centres are upgraded to ensure the success of this new initiative.

"The implementation of this new rule is part of the government's effort to reduce the amount of solid waste sent to waste disposal sites, which is becoming serious. The current sites are now inadequate following the sudden increase in waste," he said.

"The separation at source will also help reduce the amount of solid waste sent to disposal sites which will then increase the lifespan of the sites."

A study by Putrajaya last year showed that an average Malaysian produced 800 grammes of solid waste per day while those in urban areas produce 450gm of waste more than the daily average.

It said that about 30,000 to 33,000 tonnes of waste were produced each day last year last year, compared with 22,000 tonnes of solid waste produced per day in 2012. – November 15, 2014.

- See more at: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/compulsory-for-malaysians-to-separate-rubbish-from-next-year#sthash.CR0RsYWu.dpuf

Bukit Gasing being raped by MBPJ

BUKIT GASING IN PETALING JAYA IS UP FOR SALE: I don't think any one party can save it as GREEN LUNG anymore. We, human are the dangerous creature in this world. The future generation will loose the beautiful landscape of Malaysia. Who is responsible for all this? Responsible citizen should question their atrocities.

Soon this green lung will vanish, huge bungalows are being built all along the slopes...

This huge bungalow at Bukit Gasing is up for sale...

This tree is ear marked for chopping....

These poor creatures have no where to go....their home is being demolished...

Sivan temple being demolished...sign at the entrance gate to the temple...

This one near the temple : Parcel 25

Going up the hill on the right, left some huge bungalow is being constructed...

This old tree along the roadside is marked for chopping

Parcel 84 is along the snake temple road

Parcel 59 already sold

This is what happens to the nature when parcel of land in Bukit Gasing are sold for greed against nature

This parcel already bought by one Dato K Durai and the sign shows a bungalow will be up soon given approval by MBPJ

MBPJ do not respect Allah and his creation

Impure flows the Ganga

Activists believe dams on the Ganga are destroying the river and pollution is changing its very character.
FEATURE

By Sujoy Dhar

HARIDWAR: Every year Yogesh Mudgal treks miles through the mountainous roads of the Indian Himalayas during the holy Hindu month of Shravan, in July.

The 54-year-old pilgrim hails from Alwar in northern India’s Rajasthan state. For the last 27 years, he has joined the millions of other Kanwarias – devotees of Lord Shiva – entering Uttarakhand state on the uphill trail of the holy river Ganga (photo), to collect or take a dip in its soul-cleansing waters.

But this July, Mudgal is more than just a devoted pilgrim: he is also an environmental activist, visiting village after village in an effort to spread awareness about the severe pollution of the Ganga, and the destructive impact of big dams that environmentalists claim are destroying India’s “lifeline”.

“We are a group of 12 people visiting each village on our way and raising awareness about pollution of the Ganga,” Mudgal tells IPS in the holy city of Haridwar.

Mudgal is a strong supporter of Rajendra Singh, a Ganga activist popularly known as the “waterman of India” who is using his prestige to mobilise countless Kanwarias to save the sacred river from the impacts of hydel power projects that discharge enourmous amounts of pollutants into the water.

Running for 2,510km, the Ganga is India’s longest river, irrigating 40% of the country’s land and providing fresh water to 500 million people who live along its banks.

But a study conducted by the Uttarakhand Environment Protection and Pollution Control Board (UEPPCB) in 2011 slotted the Ganga’s waters into the most polluted “D” category, owing to the steady flow of human faeces, urine and human and industrial sewage into the river.

Activists say ‘no’ to dams

India’s leading Ganga activists believe big dams are to blame.

“Dams on the Ganga are destroying the river and pollution is changing its very character,” Rajendra, who heads an organisation called Ganga Mukti Sangram (Struggle to Save Ganga), tells IPS.

Thanks in large part to the efforts of activists like himself, pilgrims are now arriving shouting slogans like, “Ganga ko bachana hai” (We have come to save the Ganga).

“The dams cause an excess of silt deposits upstream, leading to algal growth that changes the character of the water,” he says.

People who live around the confluence of the river with the sea, at Ganga Sagar in West Bengal where the holy river empties into the Bay of Bengal, are extremely concerned about the situation.

“The Ganga Sagar islands, which are already threatened by climate change, are now more vulnerable than ever because there is no longer enough silt in the waters to buttress the landmass,” Singh tells IPS.

He says construction of the Tehri Dam for a hydel project in the Bhagirathi river, one of the Ganga’s two headstreams, has almost killed the river.

“Even the river Alaknanda (the Ganga’s source stream) could (suffer) as a result,” says Singh.

Green activists have already challenged government clearance of a hydel project on the Alaknanda river, three kilometres downstream from the Hindu pilgrimage centre Badrinath.

Rajendra says the campaign will continue until the Indian government stops the proposed building of 39 dams across the sacred, ancient river.

“It is going to be a long journey,” he predicts.

In March this year Rajendra and other key members of the National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGBRA) resigned in outrage over the government’s insensitivity towards Dr GD Agrawal, an environmental engineer who started a fast-unto-death in protest of proposed hydel projects on the Ganga’s Himalayan tributaries.

Agrawal was eventually taken to hospital and force-fed by the authorities.

“The government has neither political will nor any executable plan. Though the NGBRA was convened three and a half years ago and tasked with restoring ancient pride and respect for the Ganga, it has met only twice,” says Rajendra.

Massive pollution

According to India’s Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), the Ganga is unfit even for bathing in cities like Kanpur due to industrial effluents and human sewage.

According to the control board, chromium levels in the water have reached a staggering 248 milligrams per litre (mg/l), against a permissible level of two mg/l.

Surveys undertaken by government agencies say the concentration of chromium at Kanpur is 124 times the permissible level.

India’s environment ministry estimates that 2,900 million litres of sewage flow into the Ganga every day from towns along its banks but the existing infrastructure is only able to treat 1,100 million litres per day.

In April this year, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh assured swift action to save the river, but activists are sceptical and have taken matters into the own hands.

“We will go from village to village to raise awareness,” Manmohan swears.

Pro-hydro activists push back

Just as determined as India’s leading Ganga activists are the environmental groups who support hydel (hydroelectric) projects over other, more harmful alternatives like thermal, gas or atomic power projects.

Avdhash Kaushal, who heads the Rural Litigation and Entitlement Kendra (RLEK), a non-governmental organisation based in Uttarakhand’s capital Dehradun, says the government called off several projects at the behest of “foreign-funded” monks and activists.

“In 2012, state and central governments succumbed to pressure tactics of individuals [with personal agendas] and abandoned other hydro power projects in Uttarakhand purely on religious and political grounds,” he tells IPS.

“We shall not allow the state’s environment and natural resources to be degraded by thermal, gas or atomic-based power projects,” vows Kaushal, who has moved court against the suspension of dam projects.

He says countries like the United States and the UK are putting tremendous pressure on the government to pursue power projects that will devastate the environment.

Furthermore, “People in the state are facing severe shortages of water and power. Those responsible for this include state and central governments, (holy men) and these foreign funded agencies who, in the name of Nadi Bachao (Save the River) are hell-bent upon the closure of these hydel power projects,” he says.

IPS

(Photo credit: Sujoy Dhar/IPS)

Read more: http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/world/2012/07/23/impure-flows-the-ganga/#ixzz21TaKOH1J