Encroachment of forest reserves affecting Bukit Merah Dam

BAGAN SERAI: Encroachment of over 200ha of forest reserves around the Bukit Merah reservoir is believed to be one of the factors affecting the water catchment area at the Bukit Merah Dam.
Bagan Serai MP Dr Noor Azmi Ghazali said the intrusions, especially at Kampung Selamat and the Pondok Tanjung forest reserve were believed to have occurred in the past few years, and primarily used for agricultural purposes.
"This buffer zone is to store water for the dry season, and when the Bukit Merah Dam water-level recedes, water from here will flow into the reservoir.
"The encroachments have affected the ecosystem, sedimentation at the bottom of the lake has made it shallow, and when heavy rains occur, they lead to flooding, because the trees which were to act as the buffer, have been cut," he told reporters after visiting the encroached areas with Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM), here.
The Bukit Merah Dam supplies water to over 22,000ha of paddy fields in the Kerian district, and is the source of drinking water for over 200,000 people, including the industrial needs in Kamunting, Taiping.
According to Noor Azmi, who is also Bagan Serai Agriculture Development chairman, measures of cloud seeding and upgrading the Bukit Merah reservoir would be in vain, if the encroachment issue was not addressed.
"I have requested to the government to reserve this site for environmental re-mediation and at the same time, keep it as a watershed," he said.
Meanwhile, Sahabat Alam Malaysia researcher Meor Razak Meor Rahman said several areas in Pondok Tanjung and Kampung Selamat previously used to supply water to the reservoir here, had been encroached.
He drew attention to the fact his organisation had found that about 1,400ha of the Pondok Tanjung forest reserve had been de-gazetted for breeding Boer goats. — Bernama