The Consumers’ Association of Penang (CAP) today expressed concern over threats to the country’s water resources in conjunction with World Water Day 2021.
CAP president Mohideen Abdul Kader urged the Environment and Water Ministry and the state governments to enhance their efforts and improve water management to meet the basic needs of the people in this country.
At the same time, he also called on the public to value water in their lives by practising frugality and not wasting it.
“In conjunction with this year’s World Water Day, with the theme ‘Valuing Water’, CAP hopes that everyone works together to restore and protect water resources that have been seriously affected in recent years.
“CAP’s field investigations found that threats to water resources such as destruction of catchment areas due to logging activities, pollution of rivers and seas by industrial waste, sewage, agrochemical residue and sediment from agricultural areas, animal manure and livestock waste including garbage disposal have increased, causing deterioration of water quality.
“We also found that drainage in agricultural areas were used as a dumping ground of pesticide containers by a handful of farmers causing the water to be polluted and threatening aquatic life,” he said today.
Elaborating, Mohideen said the recent incidents such as the depletion of water in reservoirs in several dams such as the Muda Dam in Kedah and river pollution in Selangor and the Kim Kim River in Johor were evidence of deteriorating water quality which had affected the lives of the population in the area.
He said the water quality in the Timah Tasoh Lake in Perlis and Tasik Chini in Pahang had also been affected by environmental pollution from the surrounding areas.
He added that the seawater in the country’s waters had been polluted by various waste including waste oil from merchant ships, which happened often such as in Port Dickson, Negri Sembilan, causing marine life to be endangered and the source of income of fishermen severely affected.
In Kedah, Mohideen pointed out, tens of thousands of residents in the state were complaining and worried that their health would be affected because the supply of tap water was not only reduced but also dirty and with silt.
“Communities sourcing water from the hills, known as ‘community water’, also complained that the supply was contaminated with mud as a result of uncontrolled logging and extractive activities in the catchment area.
“The threat to water resources also affects the agricultural sector where many agricultural areas, especially paddy fields, have experienced declining yields, thus threatening farmers’ source of income.
“In general, the problems related to water not only affects the health of consumers, the agriculture, fisheries and food supply sectors but also our country’s economy.
“Therefore, the slogan to save our forests, our rivers and our sea should not remain mere slogans.
“We should all play our part in protecting our water resources from being threatened and ensure that water is safe to use,” he stressed.
Water-related laws, Mohideen said, needed to be reviewed in line with the current situation.
“The party who commits an offence of affecting water resources should be punished more severely, commensurate with the offence committed.
“As such, CAP recommends that more cooperation between the government and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) be established in an effort to raise awareness of the global water crisis and measures to safeguard this critical resource for everyone’s benefit,” he added.
2021 © New Straits Times, New Straits Times Press (M) Bhd. A part of Media Prima Group