By Charles Santiago, Klang MP

Selangor government’s “approval in principal” for the proposed integrated six expressways will exacerbate water scarcity in the state and should be an issue of concern to citizens of the state.

In particular, the construction of the East Klang Valley Expressway (EKVE) will have adverse impact on water availability for the present and future generations in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya.

The EKVE will destroy the Selangor State Park (Taman Warisan Negeri Selangor), where four forest reserves which are water catchment forests are located. And it will remove 106.65ha of forest along with the attending ecosystem services.

Specifically, there will be a loss of 19 million litres of portable water per day supplying about 9,225 households in the Ampang area. And, that will destroy the catchment area which will affect the Ampang intake plant and the Klang Gates Dam which supplies to about 80,000 households and businesses in Selangor.

In conjunction with the approval process, the state convened its first public meeting on de-gazettement of forest reserves last week.

I have reliably learned that the EKVE formal approval is in its last stages and could come anytime in the next weeks.

The state approach in giving ‘approval in principal’ is worrying and going through with the de-gazettement of existing forest reserves and catchment area clearly suggests that the state does not have an integrated and sustainable approach to water and natural resources management in the state.

The state seems to have embraced a ‘business as usual’ approach and therein lies the problem: business interests over sustainable development.

In fact, the state should take every effort to protect water sources including water catchment areas as a matter of priority as opposed to exposing the people to present and future water shortages and vulnerabilities.

The business as usual approach has to stop.

It will be a hollow declaration that Selangor will be a developed state by 2020 when we cannot even supply enough water for ourselves if we foolishly sacrifice water for an unsustainable and short-lived solution to the traffic congestion of the Klang Valley.

The state should urge the Federal government especially the MHA to promote sustainable and affordable public transportation as opposed to promoting a network of six expensive expressways to manage and disperse traffic in the state.

Thus, I call upon the state government to move away from business-as-usual practice and develop a sustainable development model in managing the state. The first task in pursuing such a model is to protect forests and catchment areas and promote natural resources policies in the interests of people including future generations.

This would require that the state government withdraw all EKVE approvals.