Sunday, July 31, 2011

Mengkuang Dam Expansion Project - 1st Aug 2011

Beginning 1 Aug 2011, the dam will be closed for the expansion of the dam for 5 years. It will be a white elephant when completed as there are not enough rivers (infact only streams) to feed the dam. A federal govt project that make no sense...except perhaps to enrich some cronies. Refer to this website that done a research on the dam years ago...under CM Dr Koh then. Today under the new CM Lim, its just the same cock story. Click here

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July 30, 2011
Residents don’t want park to be closed during work on Mengkuang Dam
Star

Residents living near the Mengkuang Dam in Bukit Mertajam, Penang, are appealing that the adjoining recreational park be closed in stages once the dam extension project starts.

Their representative Datuk Seri Teh Aik Lum said that the recreational park had long been a venue for exercise for those staying nearby.

“We understand that the dam extension project is necessary as it is important for the state’s water supply.

“However, we hope the recreational park can be closed in stages so nearby residents will be able to use sections of it as construction goes on,” Teh said during a press conference at Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng’s office in Komtar.

Lim, who chaired the press conference, said the dam would be handed over to the Ministry of Energy, Green Technology and Water on August 1 for the commencement of the RM1.2bil project.

“Through Penang Water Supply Corporation Sdn Bhd (PBAPP), the state has forwarded the residents’ appeal to the relevant ministry in a letter dated July 27.

“We want to say that we support this request but this is a Federal Government project and they are completely in control of it,” Lim said, adding that residents had collected 30,000 signatures in a petition to close the park in stages.

He added that the issue would also be brought up during a project meeting with the ministry and other relevant parties today.

PBAPP general manager Jaseni Maidinsa, who was also present, said the residents’ proposal involved building by-laws that the project constructor would need to take into account.

“The park is located directly in the construction area and it is mandatory for the construction site to be fenced up to protect both the public and the equipment at the site,” he said.

He added that the expansion project, which would take five years to complete, would increase the dam capacity by almost four times, bringing the maximum storage volume to 78mil cubic metres.

“This will safeguard the state’s water supply until 2020,” he said.

Friday, July 29, 2011

Human destroyers caught 2 of our friends

By an elephant reporter.
Jungle News

BESUT: Two tame elephants turned traitors were used to lure our two friends in Lata Tembakah.

The proud State Wildlife Department officers captured our two friends at 9am yesterday by using two decoys (Cek Mek and Kala) from the National Elephant Conservation Centre in Kuala Gandah, Pahang.

The human lured our two friends and were subsequently fired on with tranquiliser darts to make our friends sleepy.

Terengganu Wildlife Department director Yusof Shariff seemed to know that our two friends were 7 years old. They were transported to the state Wildlife Conservation Centre in Sungai Ketiar.

They also knew that it was almost impossible to capture our two friends without the help of two traitors - Cek Mek and Kala. Cek Mek and Kala led our two friends to enter the huge transport vehicle.

The human spokeman by the name of Yusof even said that our two friends are wild and had done considerable damage to villagers' crops and had caused distress to the people. They didn't even mention that they were raping our jungle and our food sources. Don't you think human speaks with forked tongue? They blame us for being wild when they themselves steal and kill our other animal friends in the jungle. They caused so much distress to us. We are starving. Human raped our jungle foods and destroyed our living space. Please help us.


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Friday July 29, 2011
Crop-damaging wild jumbos captured
By FARIK ZOLKEPLI
Star

BESUT: Two wild elephants which had damaged crops in Lata Tembakah here since Monday have been captured.

State Wildlife Department officers managed to capture them at 9am yesterday by using two tame elephants (Cek Mek and Kala) from the National Elephant Conservation Centre in Kuala Gandah, Pahang.

The officers managed to lure the wild elephants and fired tranquiliser darts to calm them.

Terengganu Wildlife Department director Yusof Shariff said the wild elephants, which were about seven years old, were transported to the state Wildlife Conservation Centre in Sungai Ketiar.

“We knew it would be almost impossible to capture the wild elephants without the help of Cek Mek and Kala.

“They managed to persuade the wild elephants to enter the department's transport vehicles,” he said.

Yusof said the wild elephants had done considerable damage to villagers' crops and had caused distress to the people.


Thursday, July 07, 2011

How Corrupt Can Malaysia Be?

No action on international wildlife trafficking syndicate
Posted on 6 July 2011 - 06:14pm
Alyaa Alhadjri
thesundaily.com

KUALA LUMPUR (July 6, 2011): PKR vice president N. Surendran today claimed that no action has been taken by the authorities to investigate "crucial evidence" which may lead to the crippling of an international wildlife trafficking syndicate allegedly operating in Malaysia.

Surendran, who is also the Malaysian Animal Rights Society (Roar) president, said the information could be obtained from Emilienne Justine Sarah – a Madagascar native who was arrested at KLIA in July last year for attempting to smuggle tortoises out of her country.

Emilliene was subsequently charged and detained for eight months at Kajang prison, where she gave birth to a baby boy and was transferred to Lenggeng detention camp before being deported to Madagascar last month.

At a press conference at PKR's headquarters, Surendran said Emilienne, while under detention in Lenggeng, had with the help of an animal rights activist lodged a police report which shed light on the "kingpins" involved in illegal wildlife trafficking.

"She was already under detention but the police did not make any effort to obtain the information from her, so she had to lodge an official report," he said.

In Emilienne's police report which Surendran distributed to the media, she named the notorious "Lizard King" Anson Wong who is now also behind bars as the person who had allegedly paid her US$600 (RM1,801) to smuggle in the tortoises from Madagascar.

Emilienne, who formerly worked as a waitress, said she needed the extra money to help support her family and was reassured that it would be a foolproof operation as custom officers in Madagascar and KLIA had allegedly been paid off.

"I first went to Penang in April last year and was told to contact a man named Vijay who owned a shop that sold tortoises, chameleons and snakes.

"When I met him (Vijay), he ordered me to transport various species of animals from Madagascar to Penang in July last year," she wrote in her police report which was lodged on June 23 at the Lenggeng station.

She said that two days prior to her departure for Malaysia from Madagascar, she was introduced to a man named Ong and his girlfriend who were responsible for packing the tortoises to be trafficked.

"While I was detained at Kajang prison, I found out that Ong's real name was Anson Wong. I was shown his picture and I can confirm that he was the man who hired me," said Emilienne.

Surendran, together with Lawyers for Liberty campaign director Fadiah Nadwa Fikri, called on the relevant authorities to investigate all claims made by Emillienne in her report and identify the man named "Vijay" who is purportedly operating in Penang.

"Wong is now behind bars, but his 'tentacles' are still spreading to as far as Madagascar. The authorities should take measures to use all information provided by Emilienne and crack down on these notorius characters," said Fadiah Nadwa.

Friday, July 01, 2011

Transforming Kuala Lumpur's Dirty Rivers

The River of Life project to tranform KL's dirty rivers into an attractive waterfront suitable for tourism is indeed a noble task. But wait, this project only involved (1) River Cleaning (2) River Beautification and (3) Corridor development.
NOTHING mentioned about educating the public on the trash floating in the river. A large part of the budget will be collecting rubbish, manning rubbish traps and dumping rubbish (i.e. river cleaning). It will be a big waste of our tax money. Educating the public and households along the rivers would help in cutting the unnecessary budget on river cleaning. Control on development along rivers should also be enforced. Until then I see no benefit to the ecology. Riparian wildlife along rivers will lost their living space when concrete corridor development replaced the natural corridor. Amsterdam, London, Melbourne and Paris have already lost their riparian corridors. Why should we make the same mistake in the name of development? Lets wait and see how successful is the project or is it part of the scheme to siphon funds for the coming GE 13?


Friday July 1, 2011 MYT 9:22:07 PM
KL's River of Life project takes off
Star

KUALA LUMPUR: The much-anticipated River of Life project, which aims to revitalise and transform Kuala Lumpur's dirty rivers, has taken off.

“I believe there will be a drastic change to Kuala Lumpur's image," said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.

"This is what Kuala Lumpur folks have been waiting for.

“The Klang river has all the elements to become an attractive waterfront bustling with daily activities,” he said at the launch of the project to transform the Klang and Gombak rivers into iconic waterfronts on par with big cities such as Amsterdam, London, Melbourne and Paris by 2020 on Friday.

The Greater KL-Klang Valley project is an Entry Point Project under the Government's Economic Transformation Programme.

Najib said the project would contribute RM11.3bil to the country's Gross Domestic Product until 2020.

The RM4bil project is divided into three parts, namely river cleaning which would involve a 110km stretch along the Klang river basin; river beautification along a 10.7km stretch by the Klang and Gombak river corridor which will include pedestrian walkways; and corridor development.