The Malaysian Insight

A WATER quality expert who has worked with the Kampung Kuala Koh Bateq tribe insists that the community’s main water source has been contaminated from plantations and mining around their forest settlement despite the government’s recent findings showing otherwise.

Another social activist who worked to install tube wells for the community in Gua Musang, Kelantan, said the government had tested samples from a river that the tribe seldom used as a water source.

While the two did not dispute a recent government finding that Sungai Lebir did not contain contaminants from a nearby mine, they said it did not present a complete picture of the situation.

This is because the Department of Environment (DoE) took only a single sample from the source said Prof Maketab Mohamed, who teaches water quality modeling at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM).

Johan Halid, whose organisation built tube wells for the settlement said the government took samples from Sungai Lebir, which was 5km away and not the community’s main source of water.  

Maketab, who once headed an environmental group, has worked with the Bateq tribe for about a year.

He said the community’s main water source was a small dam that collected water through a gravity feed well system (GFS). 

Over the year, water in the GFS had been contaminated by chemicals believed to be from an oil palm plantation and a mine upstream from the village.

Run-off from pesticides and fertiliser used at the plantation, and heavy metals from the mine, were believed to have contaminated the GFS dam, Maketab told The Malaysian Insight.   

He questioned whether DOE’s tests at the river gave an accurate picture of its year-round water quality.  

“(The DoE) single sample does not present a complete picture as samples need to be taken over different periods such as during rain or no rain and while the mine is idle or in full operation.”

“What were the parameters DoE used for its sample? Did DOE also analyse for bacteria and heavy metals,” Maketab said in response to reports that the agency found no contamination from the mine.

Maketab has worked with the Bateq tribe for a year, helping the community build special Primary One to Three classes for their children. He has also helmed the Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) twice.

Loss of water  

Their claims challenge the federal government’s statement on June 14 that the mine did not contaminate Sungai Lebir.

DoE said there were no manganese leaks from the mine about 3km from the village where 14 people had died recently.

Government ministries are currently running checks on what had caused the deaths, but early reports from groups and the villagers claimed they had gotten sick after consuming contaminated water.

Johan’s organisation, Sahabat Jariah, had built two tube wells for the village after the GFS became too polluted.

He said the villagers did not use Sungai Lebir, which was 5km away, but water from the GFS until it became too polluted.

“10 years ago when their village was surrounded by forest they could easily get water. But after a plantation cut down the forest and a mine was allowed to open in 2016, things got worse.”

The loss of forest destroyed the environment’s water catchment ability, and pesticide and fertiliser runoff from the plantation degraded the quality of water in the GFS dam.

“Villagers went to investigate the mine and they saw miners using chemicals next to the mine’s water source,” Johan said relating the villagers’ experiences.  

“When these workers washed their tools, the waste water would flow into a stream and this stream would eventually feed into the village’s water supply.”  – June 16, 2019.