Published on: Sunday, December 14, 2003 |
Kota Kinabalu: An integrated catchment management plan will be developed for Kinabatangan, the biggest project to be carried out in the State, following the signing of a memorandum of understanding between WWF-Malaysia and the Drainage and Irrigation Department (DID) Saturday.
The first catchment management plan was developed for Moyog in 2000 and in 2001, another similar project was carried out for the Padas catchment in Tambunan.
A similar plan was also devised for the district of Kota Marudu last year. The Federal-funded project is being carried out by a local consultant under the supervision of DID.
The most recent one will be carried out in Kota Belud.
State Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry, Datuk Abdul Rahim Ismail, said WWF-Malaysia and DID had discussed collaboration to develop an integrated catchment plan for Kinabatangan since early this year.
The project is part of WWF-Malaysias work on freshwater conservation under the Partners for Wetlands Programme.
Both parties view this as an opportunity to accelerate the Governments plan to develop catchment management plans, he said after witnessing the MoU signing at Menara Khidmat here.
WWF-Malaysia was represented by its Borneo Director Dr Geoffrey Davison and DID by its Director Ho Jin Hwa.
WWF-Malaysia will finance the whole RM500,000 project and it will be completed within 13 months in the catchment size of 16,800 square kilometres which represents 33 per cent of Sabahs land.
It is the biggest catchment project to be carried out in Sabah, he said while stressing that Kinabatangan catchment is a very important source of water for the State as it runs about 700 miles.
In the collaboration, he said WWF-Malaysia would provide resources, including setting up human resources, office equipment, data collection equipment, project administration expenses and funding.
DID, he added, would provide project supervision, training to project staff and the establishment of the Kinabatangan catchment integrated management planning mechanism, which includes the establishment of the Kinabatangan and Tongod District Catchment Management Committees and their respective technical taskforces.
Abdul Rahim said it was necessary to develop integrated catchment planning as this had been specifically recommended in the Sabah Water Resources Master Plan in 1994 and mandated in the Sabah Water Resources Enactment in 1998.
To protect the riverbanks in the Kinabatangan area, he said WWF had already started collaboration with Borneo Samudera by planting all sorts of forest vegetation.
Over the long term, the State Government will seek collaboration from the oil palm industry to help preserve riverbanks as well as water resources.
