Concern over water supply
Published on: Friday, July 03, 2015
Kota Kinabalu: The State may face a critical water supply situation following the earthquake and mudflood on June 5 and 15, respectively, as Mount Kinabalu has lost much vegetation that served as the watershed for many of the State's rivers."We ponder whether there is no or less source of water for the rivers as the vegetation that provides the water to the source have been destroyed by the earthquake and mud floods."Hence, there is a possibility that total volume of water in our rivers is depleting as the source comes from the vegetation and water catchment at Mount Kinabalu.
ADVERTISEMENT
As a result, there would be not enough water to irrigate the paddy fields and other crops that need water," State Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun said, Thursday. He said the assessment was made based on briefings and findings by relevant authorities and quarters on the damage caused by the two natural disasters."From what I gathered in the meetings, many rivers and streams were believed to be affected until it made us question the volume of water in those rivers and streams which are part of the water catchment areas."Two main committees have been set up and have been briefed by relevant departments, agencies and quarters in relation to the damage and effects of the two natural disasters to Sabah during meetings held, here, Wednesday.
ADVERTISEMENT
He said the first committee chaired by Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman was on coordination of works with relevant agencies and other related matters while another committee on implementation and rehabilitation of damages was chaired by himself (Masidi). Among the departments involved in the meetings of the two committees are the Sabah Drainage and Irrigation Department (DID), Public Works Department (PWD), Geoscience and Mineral Department and the Natural Disaster Research Unit Chief of Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) Prof. Dr Felix Tongkul. He said the various heads of departments and agencies have been asked to do analysis on contents of the meetings related to the jurisdiction of their respective authorities and to report to the next meetings.
ADVERTISEMENT
For example, the DID will analyse the impact of mud flood on waterways and the Agriculture Department will analyse the impact of changes in water and the causes to the farmers in Kundasang.On the mud floods, he said it has swept away boulders and rocks from the rivers which could pose danger to those living at the riverbanks."If another rainy season coming and flood happens, there would be swift currents and flow of the river water will get stronger as there are no more rocks and boulders to slow down the speed of flow."This situation poses risks to the safety of those living near the riverbanks. That is why… we want to plan ahead and prepare for such eventualities," he said.On repairing and creating trails, Masidi said they can start to do the survey of trails only aftershocks have stopped as the latest has happened at 2.9 magnitude on the Richter scale on Wednesday afternoon.He said the trail at Km6.3 and Km6.8 was a total wreckage. "When earthquake struck Nepal on April 25, there were a total of 384 aftershocks as of June 7…so from here, we cannot predict when the aftershocks would stop at Mount Kinabalu."If the aftershocks continues until September which we have set to open the mountain for climbers to scale, then we will see how it goes and we will review such date because our main concern is the safety of the climbers," he said, adding that creating new trails for the mountain is not a huge problem. Masidi said there were only 16 fatalities at Mount Kinabalu the last 22 years which was less than one per cent per year mostly due to carelessness and ignoring guides' advice. Another factor was illnesses involving middle age and elderly climbers. On limitation of age, he said there should not be an issue and there should not be limited as other mountains also do not have age restriction."The Singaporean children were actually doing endurance activities at Mount Kinabalu and some died when boulders and rocks fell on them during the earthquake."Following this, we are also looking into age so as to be fair as well as looking into type of activities to be carried out at the mountain.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
Daily Express Malaysia
