Learn from Kelantan floods, anti-highway green groups tell Selangor

With just days left for objections to a controversial new highway that will cut through swathes of virgin jungle in Selangor, activists hope the recent severe floods in Kelantan and the month-long Klang Valley water crisis last year will persuade the state government not to approve the project.

The proposed East Klang Valley Expressway (EKVE) will cut through a water catchment forest in the Selangor state park, the main source of raw water for the state and Kuala Lumpur.

Green groups fear that clearing land to build the 39.5km tolled highway could cause floods in the eastern parts of the Klang Valley, such as Ampang and Hulu Langat.

The renewed call comes just days before the month-end deadline for the public to submit feedback on the proposed highway, which is being developed by Ahmad Zaki Resources Bhd.

The EKVE, along with other controversial highway projects approved by Putrajaya, such as the Kinrara-Damansara Expressway (Kidex) and the Damansara-Shah Alam Highway (DASH), is part of the draft Selangor structure plan 2035, which includes all infrastructure projects for the state until 2035.

Once part of the plan, a project is deemed to have the final go-ahead to begin construction.

“WWF-Malaysia reiterates that the integrity of the Selangor State Park and forests in the state should not be compromised in the name of development,” said WWF-Malaysia executive director, Datuk Dr Dionysius Sharma.

Sharma said last November's mudslides in Cameron Highlands, which killed five people and the east coast floods, which displaced about 200,000 people, showed the need to protect Selangor’s forest.

The mudslides in Cameron Highlands have been blamed on rampant and illegal forest clearing to make way for unlicensed farms.

Forestry experts have also claimed that logging and forest clearing for timber clone and oil palm plantations over the past few years have clogged up Kelantan’s main rivers which worsened its annual floods.

On January 19, Sahabat Alam Malaysia said Kelantan has the largest bulk of permanent reserve forests, classified as timber tree plantations, at 162,485ha, or 26% of 623,849ha.

Selangor Menteri Besar Azmin Ali declared on January 7 that his administration would ensure all future development in the state would not harm the environment.

But his pledge would sound hollow if the EKVE was allowed to continue in its present form.

Another group said more than 100ha of the Ampang Forest Reserve, which is part of the Selangor state park, could be cleared to make way for the project.

“The Selangor Forestry Department in Febuary 2014 announced a proposal to de-gazette 106.65ha of the Ampang Forest Reserve, for the construction of the EKVE,” said the group known as Treat Every Environment Special (TrEES).

The survey report in the Selangor Draft Structure Plan showed that most of the project’s entire length will go through the forest starting from an interchange in Sungai Long to the Karak Highway.

One stretch of the highway, called phase two, cuts through the forest reserve just above the Klang Gates dam, indicating that the developer would be clearing forests close to an important water source.

According to WWF-Malaysia, the Klang Gates dam supplies water to 80,000 households and businesses in the Klang Valley.

The February to April water crisis last year saw almost 6.7 million residents in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor hit by water rationing as rivers and dams ran dry.

The crisis spurred the Selangor government to look for new sources of raw water, such as converting old mining ponds in Bestari Jaya into reservoirs.

The decision had been questioned by WWF-Malaysia.

“Allocating funds to obtain additional water resources and at the same time proposing to clear perfectly well-functioning water catchment forests that (feed into) dams and rivers for an expressway, is not a step in the right direction,” the group said in a statement in June 2014, referring to the EKVE.

TrEES director Leela Panikkar said Selangor should do a cost-benefit analysis of whether leaving the forest as it is would be better for residents rather than clearing it for the highway.

In 2013, the developer reportedly said the EKVE was a by-pass route for motorists from the southern part of the Klang Valley to travel northeast to Selayang, Gombak and the Karak Highway, without having to go through Kuala Lumpur.

For TrEEs, the ecological functions of the forest such as maintaining water supply, mitigating floods and stabilising the local climate should be prioritised.

“(This is) to determine which is of higher economic and social benefit to the people of Selangor – constructing the expressway through the forest reserves, or leaving the forest reserves intact,” said Leela. – January 27, 2015.