Environmental lessons not learnt

Professor Tan Sri Dato' Dzulkifli Abdul Razak
My View - The Sun Daily
January 6, 2016

THIS column was first published last year with the heading Rebuilding bridges and mindsets.

Then Malaysians were being challenged by the worst flooding that they had ever experienced. It could have been a wake-up call for being in a slumber so long especially after the Cameron Highlands disaster.

Despite several warnings over the years of looming environmental consequences, nothing substantial was done apart from pointing fingers.

The column ended with a call to make 2015 a turning point. Unfortunately, one year later, nothing much has changed.

We are now faced with the possibility of a "red sea" – instead of "muddy rivers" – due to yet another environmental scandal at Pantai Balok and Pantai Batu Hitam, near Kuantan.

But this was vehemently denied by the Kuantan Port Commission although it admitted having "prepared a special plan" to overcome pollution caused by bauxite mining activities. The storyline remains largely the same.

Despite being forewarned about the hazards, the denials persist even if the bauxite washing generates large amounts of waste water that is often poorly stored and seeps into rivers, potentially poisoning them with heavy metals and deepening Kuantan's growing woes.

The natural drinking water and fish from the polluted rivers are all but unfit for consumption. This at a time when the cost of living is escalating.

The Natural Resources and Environment Ministry had reportedly met Pahang state officials on three occasions to check on the situation. It was only during the fourth visit that it managed to secure "a three-month ban on bauxite mining".

"Everything will come to a complete stop on Jan 15," Environment Minister Datuk Seri Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said, adding that stockpiles would be cleared within three months.

Some 700,000 people living in Kuantan will be able to breathe easy for now although there is no guarantee that it will last.

Junaidi insisted that the "moratorium would be extended indefinitely" if the industry failed to "contain" the pollution problem within the period. New measures are apparently being considered to prevent further contamination.

All of this sounds good except that they should have been implemented long before to avert all the avoidable crises – health, ecological, ethical and our dignity of course.

After all it was just 12 months ago that we learned (if we ever do) the bitter lessons of being callous. Moreover we do not lack the appropriate knowhow with experts in bodies like the Academy of Sciences Malaysia (ASM). It may not be too late because ASM can still offer its expertise to mitigate and rehabilitate the affected areas rather than leaving them as toxic spots.

Then again when corruption comes into play, everything is up for sale. It all comes down to unbridled greed at the end of the day. The Pahang state government claimed an almost 20-fold increase (RM46.7 million) in royalty from bauxite mining last year, compared with a mere RM2.4 million in 2014. Does it not matter whether the mining has been carried out "illegally" which of late has been confirmed by the MACC? Does it not matter too if the revenue is "illicitly" gained?

MACC had found more than 200 illegal bauxite miners in Pahang, and so far seven officials have been remanded to help investigations. More arrests are expected. What is baffling is that the state does not give details how the bauxite royalty has increased almost 20 times in just a year?

So after a year we have failed to rebuild bridges and mindsets. We cannot fail again, especially when there are already indications of yet another ecological crisis. Better late than never.