I was reading the recent media reports and write-ups on the bauxite mining in Pahang.

I read about how the land owners became rich overnight because of the mineral.

I also read of the serious hazards of pollution that has occurred, with the river waters turning red and the effect of the effluence from that mining has, and will continue to have, on the immediate area and even farther beyond.

It does appear that we do not seem to learn any lessons from the past.

I am sure many of us will remember tragedies and events that came about due to the almost unscrupulous exploitation of land and resources that we have.

Buildings have collapsed suddenly because hilltop and hillside development ignored the natural process of water retention, which resulted in over-saturated hilltops and hillside land weakening, and bringing down enough mud to demolish buildings in the way.

Landslides are so frequent that it should serve valuable lessons to planners when new areas are being developed.

Then several years ago massive flooding occurred in a housing area in Selangor, with water almost reaching the rooftops. The cabinet was informed that the housing estate was built upon a flood plain!

And that to prevent future massive flooding, more than a billion ringgit was required to build an embankment type of wall to prevent water coming in.

Questions were asked as to whether planners understood the topography of the area. Did they not know that the houses and other buildings were going to be constructed upon a flood plain, which would be the natural outlet for water collecting around the area?

I can go on and on.

More often than not, commercial considerations, i.e. money and profits, can blind people from the consequences of what they do.

More often than not it is the short term consideration that holds sway. The attitude is, let the future take care of itself. The responsibility for care for the environment should never be taken lightly.

A polluted environment, whether the air we breathe in order to keep alive, the water resources, and our highlands and lowlands, will impact not only us in this generation but those generations coming after us.

Once damage is done through reckless exploitation of our natural resources, it is almost always irreparable.

And it is usually because things have gone too far before decisions are made to stop the exploitation, whether it is mining, legal or illegal, extraction of forests, real estate development and whatever else.

Even our beaches are not spared.

Lessons not learnt

We need to learn lessons from past bad experiences.

Already places with names prefixed by ‘bukit’ (hill) are now are nothing more than flattened land with buildings on it. Nothing is left to indicate that there was a hill there before.

And ‘sungai’ (river) is now but a drain that one can just wade or even jump across. How many sungais are so polluted and even toxic, that they can no longer sustain any life?

Today's young can no longer understand the joy of catching your own beautiful fighting fish in the nearest, small clear-water river and watch them in action when placed together in a bowl or a jar!

Or bathe in the crystal clear water of a small river nearby one's house, as I used to do in the little river at the Wardiburn Estate in Gombak. It is now probably dredged and covered over.

And how many ponds and small lakes have been nicely eradicated from the topography of particular areas, and now tall buildings are bulit over the exact areas?

We must think through in detail the costs and benefits attached to any endeavour that involves the exploitation of the environment.

Short term ‘benefits’ especially to only a few, should never supersede the long term costs that would need to be borne by us and the generations after us. These costs that cannot even begin to be evaluated in monetary terms!

These include costs in the context of health and wellbeing, irrecoverable nature in its original for, and the many side effects all around as a result of indiscriminate and ill planned exploitation of our natural resources.

Let us not regret for decades later, what we did to our environment today, through lapses in planning and not thinking through.

RAFIDAH AZIZ is former Minister of International Trade and Investment.

READ Malaysiakini' s special report on the bauxite rush and its impact on Kuantan and its surrounding areas:

Part 1: Greed, gangs, violence in Kuantan's bauxite rush

Part 2: How to bauxite rush is taking a toll on Kuantan's future

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