nst Cover story: Left high and dry?

04 Mar 2007

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A quiet Orang Asli village in Pahang may be sacrificed to appease Kuala Lumpur and Selangor's insatiable thirst for fresh water, write JESSICA LIM and ELIZABETH JOHN.

THE graves lay just behind the ciku and rambutan plots, scattered among the rubber trees.

"Sometimes the dead appear to us in our dreams. If they ask for sirih or pinang, we have to bring it to them," said Tanjung Chan of Kampung Sungei Temir.

"If this place is submerged by water, it will be terrible."

Tanjung's little village of some 500 Temuan folk sits right on the edge of the proposed RM3.8 billion Kelau Dam, a controversial project 10 years in the pipe-line.

If it goes as planned, 4,090ha of land in Pahang will be under swirling water, drowning along with it about a thousand hectares of the Lakum Forest Reserve, Felda reserves and Orang Asli ancestral land.

"If you ask me, it isn't fair that we have to move. The water isn't even for us," said Tanjung.

He paused at the site where his grandfather and great grandfather are buried. The suggestion that the bones be unearthed and relocated was met with another sad shake of the head.

"It's not a good thing to do. Besides, our ancestors have been buried here for so long, the bones would be thoroughly decayed. There would be nothing left to dig out."

This response is the polar opposite of what consultants said in the project's Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), done in 2000.

The assessment read: "There appeared to be no strong emotional attachment over the burial ground and the dead... (and that) ...when posed with the question of a need for exhumation, the response given by the Orang Asli can be considered as immaterial."

That's not the only point on which the EIA differed with the reality on the ground, says Dr Colin Nicholas of the Centre for Orang Asli Concerns (COAC).

"The report said that the Orang Asli were anxious to be resettled, but they clearly don't want to move," he said.

The centre has compiled a video of the villagers' responses, and will be presenting it when the technical committee meets tomorrow to further discuss the resettlement.

The project consultants propose that the village be moved to Sungai Bilut, 40km away, a move that Nicholas says will throw the life of the Orang Asli into chaos.

"There will be a breakdown in culture. Older people are respected because they know the land.

"When they move, they won't know where anything is. They'll lose the respect of the younger ones.

"The consultants don't know the Orang Asli and their way of life."

Nicholas said that since the water from the dam wasn't actually going to inundate the village, there was no reason for the people to relocate.

In fact, in 2004, a decision was made to lower the dam's water level by five metres, putting the Orang Asli even further away from any possible danger.

"If they're really concerned for the safety of the Orang Asli, move the houses 20 metres away from the edge of the water, and let them continue living in their ancestral lands," challenged Nicholas.

When describing his people's relationship with the land, headman Batin Chan Beng used the word sebati, the same word we use in chemistry lessons when two compounds cannot possibly be separated.

It's not only the graves, he said. The land, with its wild boars, fruit-laden trees and frolicking fish, defined who they were.

During the last meeting of the project's technical committee to discuss resettlement issues, it was proposed that each Orang Asli family be given RM400 per month for two years.

The amount, says Batin Chan, is ridiculous.

"Here, our fruit and rubber trees are already big. We can earn over RM1,000 a month now. During durian season, we can get over RM3,000.

"In the new place it may be years before the crops grow. We don't know where to look for food. Meanwhile, our children still need to go to school, don't they?"

The dam project must go on

While the Orang Asli wonder about their future, the Klang Valley's six million residents continue to glug down fresh water like Spongebobs on a drinking marathon.

Drainage and Irrigation Department director-general Dr Keizrul Abdullah said a typical consumer used 250 litres of water per day.

Compared to Germany (156), Denmark (190) and Singapore (216), he said there was room for improvement.

"We use water for many things, but the biggest amount is for flushing the toilet. Each time we flush, we use up to 10 litres."

He said that in some states, as much as half the water got lost somewhere in between the time it entered the system and spouted from our taps. This is called non-revenue water.

Some argue that before forest is destroyed to make way for the dam, Selangor and Kuala Lumpur should fix leaks and teach its residents to better conserve water.

"If each person in the Klang Valley uses one big mineral water bottle less a day, we'd save six million litres, in a single day," mused Keizrul.

But at the end of the day, he believes the dam still has to be built.

"The population is increasing four per cent yearly. Better practises might delay the need for a few years. But it's only a matter of time."

"It's better to build the dam, and make sure it's done sustainably."

The project's EIA report, which was completed in 2000, projected that Selangor and Federal Territory's water use per person would increase to 315 litres a day by 2005, and 320 litres by 2010.

It went on to say that without the Kelau Dam, they would be unable to fulfill their water needs by the end of 2007.

Those figures should be reviewed, says environmental engineer Prof Dr Zaini Ujang, who agreed with Keizrul's more moderate estimate that residents now use 250 liters per day.

In fact, he believes that water usage per person is going down rather than up.

One Syarikat Bekalan Air (Syabas) report says that Kuala Lumpur and the Federal Territory could reduce non-revenue water by more than half in the next six years. True to this projection, improved piping slashed non-revenue water from 43 per cent in 2005 to 34 per cent within a year.

"There have to be new studies on whether we really need this dam. We also have to consider alternatives."

In 2005 a financial daily reported that several private companies had put forward other ideas, most of which took the dam out of the picture.

One option Zaini speaks of is pumping water from Sungai Pahang further downstream, where water flow is higher.

The alternative schemes are said to reduce the length of the tunnel by more than 10 kilometres and could cut cost by RM1 billion.

The higher echelons themselves seem to be in two minds about the project.

Last month, In February,Environment Minister Datuk Seri Azmi Khalid announced that the project had been given the go ahead.

A few days later, Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said the Government was still studying the proposal and a decision had not been made.

While the details are being hammered out by the big powers, the simple folk of Kampung Sungei Temir await a fate that they seem powerless to alter.

"We do not feel good in having to move to another place," said Batin Chan.

"The Orang Asli say they are forced. Even if they do not want to resettle, they will be forced to resettle. That's what they say."