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Kampung Kelaik is about 60km away from Gua Musang.
Malaysiakini
An Orang Asli village near Gua Musang was flooded today as the rising Sungai Kelaik waters broke an embankment built by a steel factory.
According to Kampung Kelaik resident Uda Busu, the 3pm incident almost took the life of a child playing by the river.
“Our children play there and one of them barely managed to move up to land when the river water came rushing in.
“Otherwise, he would have been swept away,” he said when contacted.
He said that a Kampung Kelaik resident who worked as a guard at the factory had ran to the village to warn other villagers.
“The water submerged our farms soon after but luckily our homes are on stilts.
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When contacted, Sterling Goldhill Sdn Bhd, the factory’s contractor, said it was still verifying the Orang Asli’s claim.
“The Orang Asli have made many claims before this, I will need visit the site to check,” said company manager Julice Chu.
However, Chu noted that there had been heavy rainfall in the region and the increase in water levels was not exclusive to Sungai Kelaik.
The factory, which is a 40-minute journey uphill by four-wheel-drive vehicle from the village, stores its rusty red waste water used in processing iron ore in large ponds.
Factory’s embankment breaks, village flooded
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A large part of the 4,000 hectares of Sungai Relai Forest Reserve in Gua Musang, Kelantan had been logged by a firm allegedly linked to Perak DAP chairman Datuk Ngeh Koo Ham.
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Last month, Malaysiakini had reported that the traditional way of life of the Orang Asli community in Gua Musang is being threatened by endemic logging for mass plantation under the Kelantan government’s Ladang Rakyat programme.
Furthermore, the logging activities have destroyed the water catchment areas of several villages there and turned rivers murky with muddy water.
Malaysiakini
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The Kelantan and Terengganu Orang Asli Development Department (Jakoa) has acknowledged that the Orang Asli community in Gua Musang, Kelantan is being threatened by widespread logging and water pollution, but that the causes are beyond its control.
Orang Asli dept: No control over logging, pollution
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Malaysiakini
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While the Gua Musang Orang Asli community in Kelantan battle chainsaws that threaten to transplant their traditional forest with plantations, one village here is up against a different kind of challenge.
Kampung Kelaik, situated along the quiet Gua Musang-Cameron Highlands highway, is isolated from the main cluster of Orang Asli settlements minus a ‘post’ or administrative centre like the rest.
Villagers here have no access to running water and complain that the river that they depend upon is literally turning brownish red, and are fingering the mining activities uphill for their woes.
“We don’t have running water here, so we need to rely on the river but the Kelaik River is red in colour,” said Angah Pandak (right), 55, pointing to the black and cracked skin on his leg, he claimed that the water was causing sickness among the local population.
The only nearby alternative river, Sungai Chia, he explained, was also off limits as villagers fear pesticides in the water from an upstream oil palm plantation.
An uphill 40-minute journey by four wheel finds an iron ore factory perched on the hilltop, churning out rusty-red water into what appear to be ponds dug out of the ground.
‘Even rice in pot turns red’
“This is the water that we are getting, even when we cook rice, our rice turn red in colour,” said another villager, Angah Muda as he pointed down at the ponds.
Kelantan Orang Asli weep over red rivers
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Star
- 28 Dec 2012
- The Star Malaysia
Orang asli in dire straits
Years of protest by community against logging fall on deaf ears
GUA MUSANG: Years of protests have come to naught for an estimated 10,000 orang asli who are living in dire straits due to extensive logging and forest conversion in Kelantan.
Massive heap: Logs piled on the side of a logging trail near Kg Angkek and Kg Podek in RPS Kuala Betis, where logging activities have resumed recently and affected their water supply.Orang asli activists, who have accused the state government of turning a deaf ear to their grouses, are now upping the ante in the battle to have their land rights legally recognised.
One of them, Dendy Johari, 20, claimed that Mentri Besar Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat’s administration was not taking responsibility for their welfare.
“The MB must understand our problems as they affect us directly, day in and day out. We are not greedy for a lot of land.
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He said the orang asli were also disappointed with the state Orang Asli Development Department (Jakoa) as it had not assisted them despite numerous complaints about logging.
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Summary of their other woes:
1 Water tanks that were installed in 2010 ran out, and now they uses river water.
2 Logging has muddied the rivers, while pesticide use in plantations has triggered fears of water pollution and health issues.
3 Vast areas of logged forest have been converted to monocrop industrial plantations, including latex timber clone plantations. This has affected their livelihood as they depended on the forests for their food and materials for their craftwork, medicine and other daily requirements.
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They are outraged that all of these activities have been done throughout the years with scant regard for their well-being as well as no prior consultation with them.
Awir is one of a rising number of people who have been fighting for their land rights to be legally recognised by the state government.
Click on Logged out and read the reports following it…
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- 28 Dec 2012
- The Star Malaysia
Expert: Replacing forests with LTCS destroys biodiversity
We are talking about thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of species. Some are known to be rare, some found only in Kelantan. — LIM TECK WYN
GUA MUSANG: Conversion of natural forests to latex timber clone (LTC) plantations completely destroys an area’s natural biodiversity and ecology and could wipe out endemic species altogether, said environment and forestry expert Lim Teck Wyn.
“We are talking about thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of species.
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In addition, he said plantations contained very little minor forest produce, such as rattan or bamboo – natural resources that the orang asli depend on.
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“In Peninsular Malaysia, there are plans to create more than 400,000ha of LTCs, while I hear almost 200,000ha has been planned in Kelantan,” he said.
Lim claimed that some of the clearing work done in Kelantan was a violation of the guidelines, with scant regard for the hill slope degree or an environmental impact assessment.
He said very few animals could live in plantations as well, which further affect orang asli villages throughout the area.
“The orang asli don’t just live on a dot on the map.
“They live in a more complicated system which encompasses the forest surroundings,” he said.
Click on Logged out and read the reports following it…
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- 28 Dec 2012
- The Star Malaysia
- By EILEEN NG newsdesk@thestar.com.my
DAP criticised for not living up to environmental promise
PETALING JAYA: MCA had slammed DAP for being hypocritical in championing for the environment but, at the same time, its leaders are allegedly involved in clearing out green lungs.
Kelantan MCA youth chief Gan Han Chuan said DAP’s anti-pollution stand is “purely a performance” and that the party was a hypocrite acting entirely on political interests.
He said DAP’s manifesto which touched on the environment is nothing more than empty promises to fish for votes.
“In reality, DAP has wreaked severe damage to the environment and depleted green lungs. DAP is an absolutely hypocritical party – saying one thing, but performing the exact opposite,” he said in a statement yesterday.
He was referring to a report that a large part of the 4,000 hectares of Sungai Relai Forest Reserve in Gua Musang, Kelantan had been logged by a firm allegedly linked to Perak DAP chairman Datuk Ngeh Koo Ham.
The logging activity, which was believed to have started in April this year, had stripped the terrain bare and caused pollution to nearby villages.
Gan said DAP had repeatedly extolled environmental protection and promised to implement green policies but since governing Penang, major hillslope projects are still being carried out while the company purportedly linked to Ngeh had destroyed Kelantan’s forest reserves.
“DAP preached tirelessly on safeguarding the environment, but they are thousands of miles apart from practising it.
“Now that DAP has stakes in this personal interest of theirs, the concept of looking after the environment is shoved completely behind them,” he said.
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