A group of community leaders from Pelangai have come to my office to raise their serious concern with regards to logging activities in the water catchment area for the Sg. Gapoi water treatment plant in Pelangai, Bentong.
In fact, there were attempts by certain parties to log this area about a year before the 14th General Election. But due to strong protests from the local communities and environmental NGOs who were concerned that the source of drinking water for the people will be destroyed, the logging activities were immediately stopped by the then Menteri Besar of Pahang, Dato Seri Adnan Yaakob, an eight-term and current ADUN of Pelangai. This U-Turn proved that the decision to approve it in the first place was wrong.
Now, greenlight was again given to log this area under the pretext it was cleared to make way for a “ladang rakyat”.
This lame excuse was clearly an attempt to mislead the people and legitimize the logging activities. Thousands of acres of forests have been irresponsibly cut down in the past decades but left abandoned to this day. Why do we need to clear more? The intention is clear. Log is what they are after.
This irresponsible act of total clearing of thousands of acres of forests upstream of a water treatment plant will adversely affect the supply of clean drinking water to more than 50,000 residents of Pelangai. And this is the only clean water source left in Pelangai, the only one which has not turn into ‘teh tarik’.
Secondly, it will also adversely affect the eco-tourism potential of the downstream area which has among others a waterfall and orang asli settlements.
Thirdly, even though Pelangai may be a rural area at present, developments are foreseen in the near future once the Central Spine Road section connecting Pelangai and Bentong is completed. And in the event this road is further extended to Negeri Sembilan, then Pelangai will be the southern gateway into Bentong. With development, demand for water will increase. Therefore, protecting this water source is crucial to Pelangai’s future development.
Therefore, I strongly urged the Menteri Besar of Pahang, Environment and Water Minister and ADUN of Pelangai to act immediately and put a stop to all logging activities in the water catchment area for the Sungai Gapoi water treatment plant.
Our children and future generations deserve a clean glass of water.