Source : The Star, Malaysia, 21 June '05
By : Hilary Chiew
  

Are we getting any nearer to the goal since the phrase was popularised two decades ago? Hardly. The closest we got to sustainable development, said one green activist, is a conference on the topic. It was the first one organised by the umbrella body of Malaysian environmental non-governmental organisations or MENGO.

	We still have tracts of forest but how long more will they last?

Manogaran Maniam, president of the Environmental Protection Society of Malaysia, reckoned it is an “achievement of sorts” for the conference to be held at the Putra World Trade Centre, the country’s prestigious venue for all things that signify our “progress”.

From bureaucrats who still grapple with the right environment-friendly policies to public apathy towards environmental protection, it is clear that the rate of development is unsustainable. According to papers presented at the conference from June 6 to 7, we are way off the mark in almost every aspect.

Take for instance, waste management. With higher disposal income, we generate more waste than landfills can accommodate but official recycling programmes are inefficient – the three-bin system is abused and recycling centres are inaccessible.

While public participation is vital in waste minimisation, a recycling promoter said more could be achieved with government leadership and investment in infrastructure.

Since the launch of its statewide recycling campaign in 2002, Penang has raised its recycling rate from a mere 1.5% to 15% last year. Some 70,000 tonnes of waste were recycled during the three years, saving the municipality RM8.5mil (RM120 per tonne) in waste management costs.

The state recycling co-ordinator Datuk Dr Ong Hean Tee said the achievement was made possible by the formation of the Penang Local Government Consultative Forum with support from the state government.

“Recycling programmes must not be just a show for the record, a publicity stunt or a one-off event,” he said.

We are constantly reminded that we will head towards a water-scarce future if nothing is done to remove the threats to our rivers. That scenario will be truly shameful given that Malaysia is blessed with 30m of rainfall a year.

More rivers are silted and polluted. The culprit is indiscriminate land-clearance within water catchment areas. Many rivers function as open sewers and convenient dumps for solid, organic and toxic wastes. Between 465 and 767 tonnes of garbage are thrown into the Klang River daily, a river that has been subjected to years of cleanup programmes.

Department of Irrigation and Drainage director-general Datuk Kheizrul Abdullah attributed the sorry state of rivers to the fact that they are managed according to political boundaries rather than hydrological spheres. He also pointed out weaknesses in the overlapping laws governing rivers and the non-deterrent penalties in these outdated legislations.

However, he said help is on the way with the centralisation of water management, which will look at rivers as a resource that must not be sacrificed.

Gridlock

The road network in the national capital, Kuala Lumpur, is itself a symbol of unsustainable development. Research on cities in Britain and the United States showed that building highways to reduce traffic congestion only encouraged higher private car usage.

Kuala Lumpur showed a 198% growth in car registration between 1980 to 1990, behind Seoul (574%) and Bangkok (229%).

Dr Jamilah Mohamad of the Centre for Transportation Research at Universiti Malaya urged for measures to curb the rise in private car ownership, such as by having policies that favour public transport development.

“The light rail transit system is popular with commuters but it lacks coverage and integration,” she said, adding that an authority to oversee planning and implementation of the transport system is sorely needed. Attention should also be paid to region-wide integration.

“Cities wishing to minimise car use must address urban land use patterns and their effects on urban transportation. Best responses seem to be selective densification and mixing compatible land uses, especially around areas of high public transport accessibility,” she said.

Higher private car ownership also means higher fossil fuel consumption as well as emissions that pollute the air and contribute to global warming.

In the energy sector, the projection for energy supply is rather worrying. Dr Anish Kumar Roy of the Energy and Water Services Division of the Ministry of Energy, Water and Communication noted that Malaysia would depend on an energy mix of gas and coal, with the latter gradually gaining prominence. Coal emits more greenhouse gases (culprits of global warming) than natural gas.

The projected energy mix is 74% gas and 21% coal in 2004. By 2020, the gas contribution will drop to 43% while that of coal will increase to 55%.

Progress in use of renewable energy is slow partly due to subsidies for oil and gas but Anish said things would get better with the proposal for an energy management programme that will spearhead the development of sustainable energy.

Nature’s loss

In the protection of natural resources and ecosystems, the record is dismal. Wetlands, coastal zones, marine ecosystems and forests are constantly reclaimed, cleared and converted for development projects. The destruction has taken a toll on wildlife.

Environmentalists said there are sufficient laws to protect the environment but enforcement is lacking. Furthermore, most habitats are in the hands of state governments, who often formulate development projects that disregard federal guidelines.

And yet, another set of national guidelines was launched in April: the National Physical Plan (NPP). “Implementation of the NPP depends on the states and other government agencies,” declared Siow Suan Neo, senior assistant director of the Town and Country Planning Department.

She said the plan encompasses all sectoral policies and translates them into spatial dimension to guide the national development strategies. The plan proposes “limits” to development so that prime agricultural land, environmentally sensitive areas, forests and wildlife reserves are retained for food security and to serve ecological functions.

In fact, she said there was no reason for large-scale coastal reclamation, conversion of forested areas or encroachment into land above 1,000m as ample land exists in urban and sub-urban centres.

However, she said projects that have been committed prior to the formulation of the NPP will be allowed to carry on but state governments should use their judgement to either scale down or drop those that contradict guidelines.

But signs are that NPP’s recommendations are falling on deaf ears. Apparently, the Federal Territories Ministry had called for a RM2mil study to guide hillslope development due to “land shortage in Kuala Lumpur”.

Need we say more?