The Kedah government should learn to comprehend possible disasters brought on by indiscriminate logging and quarrying from the recent tragedy in the Philippines where more than 1,400 people have been recorded dead or missing following the storms of late November.

The flash floods, mudslides and rockfall that swept away whole villages on the Philippine coast have been blamed on uncontrolled felling of timber and should have fired the imagination of Kedah state authorities and jolt them to act in preventing a similar tragedy, says a local environmental group.

Kedah-based Friends of the Environment Front (Asas) warns that unless the state government take substantive measures to rein in loggers and quarry operators, the human and material costs of environmental destruction would increase to tragic proportions.

Of particular concern, says Asas secretary Aziz Man, is the state government's inaction against the various quarrying works being carried out in several places along Sungai Muda, which are said to threaten the lives and welfare of thousands of villagers who live along the river banks.

"The state government of Kedah is still heedless of the impending disaster to the people brought on by environmental destruction, such as the recent Philippine tragedy which led to the loss of thousands of lives," Aziz said when contacted.

Political will

In a letter sent to Menteri Besar Syed Razak Syed Zain yesterday, Aziz urged the state government to exercise more political will in preventing such tragedies from occuring in Kedah.

He also listed numerous quarrying and logging operations that were being carried out "without fear of national laws" along or in the region of Sungai Muda.

"The laws need to be firmly enforced on sand quarry operators and the mining of sand from rivers. Logging carried out in the hinterland of Sungai Muda have to be supervised, and if these are destroying water catchment areas, should be stopped immediately."

Kedah's floods, which occur yearly during the rainy season but have worsened in recent years, culminated in 2003 with the relocation of thousands of villagers from Kawasan Jambatan Merdeka and Bumbung Lima after their homes were overwhelmed by flood waters.

However, Aziz said political will and augmenting enforcement powers of the state land and mines department are by themselves insufficient until the government addresses the 'bureaucratic' root of the problem.

Departmental disputes

"In view of the bureaucratic idiosyncracies of administering and managing rivers, the state government should set up a special body to administer rivers," said Aziz, adding that such a body would coordinate the often overlapping work of the various state agencies and be empowered to act where the agencies' powers end.

"The (state) irrigation department, which is under the natural resources and environment ministry, is oriented more towards managing national agricultural activities than the rehabilitation of rivers," he added

"Disputes often occur between the irrigation department and the land and district department, especially on issues of sand quarrying and mining on river banks."

Aziz's comments echo calls made previously by other experts for the set-up of a national-level board to manage and administer rivers.

Local Malay daily Berita Harian reported two months ago on calls from an international conference in Georgetown for the set-up of a board that would simultaneously address issues of flash floods, drought, and pollution.

Universiti Sains Malaysia professor Dr Nor Azazi Zakaria said such a board "needs to be created in order to manage rivers more effectively for purposes of irrigation, drainage and (maintaining) supply," said the report.