‘Threats to water resources increasing’
GEORGE TOWN: The Consumers Association of Penang (CAP) yesterday expressed concern over threats to the country’s water resources.
CAP president Mohideen Abdul Kader urged the Environment and Water Ministry and state governments to improve water management to meet the needs of the people.
He also called on the public to value water by practising frugality.
“In conjunction with this year’s World Water Day, with the theme ‘Valuing Water’, CAP hopes that everyone can work together to restore and protect water resources that have been seriously affected in recent years.
“CAP’s field investigations found that threats to water resources, such as destruction of catchment areas due to logging, pollution of rivers and seas by industrial waste, sewage, agrochemical residue and sediment from agricultural areas, animal manure and livestock waste, including garbage disposal, have increased, causing deterioration of water quality.
“We also found that drainage in agricultural areas were used as a dumping ground for pesticide containers by a handful of farmers, causing the water to be polluted and threatening aquatic life.”
Mohideen said recent incidents, such as the depletion of water in the reservoirs of several dams and river pollution in Selangor and Sungai Kim Kim in Johor, were evidence of deteriorating water quality.
He said the water quality in the Timah Tasoh Lake in Perlis and Tasik Chini in Pahang had also been affected by environmental pollution from the surrounding areas.
He added that seawater in the country had been polluted by waste, including oil from merchant ships in Port Dickson, Negri Sembilan, which endangered marine life and severely affected the source of income of fishermen.
“Water-related problems not only affect the health of consumers and the agriculture, fisheries as well as food supply sectors, but also our country’s economy. Therefore, the slogans to save our forests, our rivers and our sea should not remain mere slogans.
“We should all play our part in protecting our water resources from being threatened and ensure that water is safe to use.”