Penang appeals to Kedah to review logging policy for the sake of water supply

Thie above headlines in the Sun Paper on 20th June 2008 in spired us to pen these remarks. After reading our remarks please read the complete newspaper article. The content of the article will add credence to our humble opinion. Read on .....

The previous Menteri Besar of Selangor, Khir Toyo boasted that Selangor is a developed state. Of course, at that time all of us questioned his criteria for justifying this claim.

Friends of Kota Damansara is of the opinion that we should measure not how DEVELOPED our State is but how SUSTAINABLY DEVELOPED is our state. A developed state measures its success only by economics activities while SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT measures its ability to balance economic factors against environmental and social concerns.

Penang is a progressive state but its sustainability depends on Kedah. Once Kedah starts to logging activities around the dam area, Penang will run out of water. Selangor another progressive state is sustained through the supply of water from Perak or Pahang.

Putting it another way, Pahang or Kedah should never progress to the same level as Penang or Selangor as the economic prosperity of one progressive state requires another supporting state to stagnate. Very much like the excessive life styles of USA is at the expense of low lying pacific islanders losing their homes through global warming and the consequential rise in sea level.

On a local level Friends of Kota Damansara is working with the new Selangor state government to gazette the Kota Damansara Community Forest Park (KDCFP) as a Community Forest Park that disallow any commercial development of any kind. Activities and the use of the forest includes the local community who should sit on the park committee. The forest should be kept for its ecological function to keep Kota Damansara cool and flood free. The forest will also serve a social function when it is used as a venue for values-laden activities that will build more resposible and caring malaysians.

Kota Damansara must remain sustainable. The KDCFP is 8% of the total green coverage of Petaling Jaya. Removing it as suggested by the draft PJ plan- RTPJ2 is irresponsible. There is only so much population that Petaling Jaya can sustain, beyond its carrying capacity life can only be degraded for every PJ resident. Town planners and mayors cannot make PJ carry more than the population that its environment can sustain. Other municipalities should be tasked to accomodate expanding population.

In the mean while, other "developed" parts of PJ which have attained "concrete jungle" status should be re-green. Empty unused spaces should be regrown with good strong trees that will shade the population, promote more walking and cycling. Only by regreening will we restore sustainability to different parts of PJ.

Read the folowing article of how Penang appeals to Kedah not to develop for the sake of the well being of Penangites. Of course do not forget, the Federal government has starved Kedah off Federal funds forcing them to sacrifice long term gains for short term survival. Sustainabiliy is never a decision of the municiplaity, or state operating alone. It requires a holistic solution to solve individual local problems. Impossible when corruption and self interest is present. Only with clean and transparent governance can we start to strive for Sustainable Development and not desctructive, indiscriminate, egocentric, wasteful ...development.