Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM) urges the state government of Pahang to immediately stop the logging activity in the Kuala Krau Forest Reserve near Temerloh because it is causing damage to the environment and threatening the lives of 200 Orang Asli in Kampung Terbol here.
Besides polluting the community’s daily water supply, the activity is also causing disturbance to the ecosystem and the forest area which is used by the community to source their livelihood.
At the same time, the tap water supplied by the Ministry of Health since 15 years ago to channel clean drinking water to villagers is no longer functioning properly since the logging began.
Complaints and objections were made by the Kampung Terbol Villagers Action Committee through a letter to the authorities, but until now they have yet to receive a response from the authorities.
The villagers here also held a peaceful protest demanding that logging activities are stopped.
Commenting on a press report (Sinar Harian: May 19, 2015) on this issue, SAM requested the Pahang Forestry Department, Department of Environment (DOE), Department of Irrigation and Drainage (DID), Department of Health and the Temerloh District Office to pay serious attention to this problem and take immediate action to resolve the issue.
SAM is upset that although the impact of logging i.e. the destruction to the environment and adverse effects to the lives and livelihood of the community are evident, the logging activity is still allowed without any action being taken.
SAM believes that this dire situation will worsen if the source of income and basic needs such as food and clean drinking water for the villagers are further threatened.
In fact flash floods can also hit the village if the problem of soil erosion and sedimentation also occur as a result of the logging activities. If this happens, the property and crops of the villagers here will be destroyed. Thus SAM supports the demand by the villagers that the logging activity is stopped immediately.
S.M.MOHAMED IDRIS
President
