(A poem in protest against incessant water cuts as a result of repeated contamination/pollution/poisoning in the Semenyih River.)

Toxic solvents in the water they find,
What the culprits have left behind.
Our water is now seriously polluted,
Have the perpetrators truly bolted?
I do not believe that, not for a second.
They have support, is what I reckon.
How else could this go on for years?
Authorities’ enforcement no one fears.

The Semenyih River again contaminated,
Stories to the public - are they fabricated?
How can this river be repeatedly violated?
Yet this is what is maddeningly communicated.
By the riverside there are hundreds of factories,
How they were approved will make juicy stories.
Toxic chemicals; oil wells, solvents - all poisonous,
Dumped in the water, dangerous and hazardous.

In years to come we will look back and wonder,
Why the rate of cancer in Selangor is higher.
The health of the public irreversibly affected,
It will be too late once our cells have mutated.
Our water taps have run dry; week after week,
A credible explanation and apology we seek.
As we anxiously await the Festival of Lights,
Will we receive instead a Drought of Blight?

The relevant authorities - do they really care?
Their rivers not poisoned - for who would dare?
The fat cats lick their lips and fatten their hips,
While the rest of us run chaotic in frenzied fits.
The politicians lazily sit and play the blame game,
Whichever party or name - they’re all the same.
Ministerial accountability we do not at all see,
Nor departmental responsibility; don’t you agree?

We implore you, stop this murderous pollution!
Arrest the culprits, issue the fines, find a solution!
Water is a human right; a most basic commodity;
Help us, the rakyat; please; and stop this atrocity!

MEERA BADMANABAN is a thirsty USJ resident who has endured no less than six water disruptions in the last eight weeks and whose only wish for Deepavali this year is for the water supply to be resumed.