Orang Asli villagers stop excavator from destroying water catchment area in Lojing

GUA MUSANG: A group of 20 Orang Asli from Kampung Sendrop, Lojing, here, today prevented an excavator driven by a man from excavating earth on a hill to prevent further destruction of the water catchment area there.
They had to resort to that action about 2pm as the 500-odd villagers were forced to use murky water for the past one month, allegedly due to the soil excavation work.
Kampung Sendrop penghulu, Andol Busu Jamin said before they resorted to that action today, the contractor undertaking the excavation work to turn the hilly location into vegetable farms had been told several times not to encroach upon the area as it would adversely affect the water catchment area.
"The excavation work has caused us a lot of problems as we've had to use murky and muddy water of late," he told reporters.
Andol Busu said it was not easy to find natural highland water source for their daily use as the Lojing Highlands forest areas were being depleted by logging and vegetable farming activities.
"It's the same with the river water. The condition is even worse that we can't cook and bathe with it," he said.
One of the Orang Asli villagers, Sudin Akoh, 49, said all this while they had been depending on hill water for their daily needs.
"But since our water catchment area has been encroached upon, the water has become murky and sometimes muddy over the past several days," he lamented.
Meanwhile, Galas assemblyman Ab Aziz Yusof said many water catchment areas in Lojing Highlands had been destroyed due to uncontrolled clearing of the forest land there.
"I fear that if no action is taken by the relevant authorities to stop the destruction, the effect could be worse for the Orang Asli residents.
"They have resorted to preventing the excavator from excavating soil on a hill there today in order to protect their rights, because from where else can they get water for their daily needs?" he said. — Bernama