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by Rick Gregory
A decade ago, a dam was built to raise the waters in Lake Chini to benefit tourism with damaging consequences to trees, fish, wildlife species and indigenous communities. RICK GREGORY provides an update on the efforts to save this unique lake ecosystem.
Despite its overwhelming biological diversity and tropical ecosystems, Malaysia lacks lakes. There are only two natural freshwater bodies in the entire country: Tasik Bera and Tasik Chini. Most of the others are the result of manmade dams and former tin mine pools. Both lakes support Orang Asli communities, the Semelai in Tasik Bera and the Jakun in Tasik Chini.
Tall clumps of pandan and foot-high tube sedge grow in green islands throughout the lake. The surrounding forests offer rattan, wood, medicinal plants, fruit and wild game, while the lakes harbour a variety of fishes. Today, rubber, oil palm and agricultural crops have overtaken much of the jungle areas, but the Orang Asli are still mostly dependent on the bounty of these inland waters.
In 1995, Tasik Chini was dealt a near fatal blow in an attempt to increase tourism. This oxymoronic consequence illustrates the failure of consultants to recognize the delicate nature of lake ecosystems and the often-indelicate decisions of bureaucrats. Sediments from logging and oil palm estate clearance ended up in the lake, causing some sections to become too shallow to ferry tourists during the two-month dry season. Thus, boatmen requested a rise in the water level by building a dam. One year after dam construction, thousands of trees rimming the lake died due to inundation. Fish that used the lake to nest and breed were cut off; hence species such as arowana and the giant featherback were exhausted. State officials and boatmen pointed fingers at each other and the Menteri Besar reprimanded the dam contractor.
Ten years later Tasik Chini still suffers from pollution, invasive plants and disagreements over proper water levels. Before the dam, Tasik Chini rose and fell with the seasons, its swollen excess converging in the Chini River to slowly filter out into the large Pahang River in the north. Lotus plants dominated the surface because its seeds easily germinated and roots grew in the soft mud during low waters. Monsoon floods caused the lotus to die off, but not before fertilised seeds sank to the lake bottom. The dam stopped lake waters from receding; hence fewer lotus plants grew year after year. In 2000, annual flow patterns returned when the dam was redesigned that also allowed for fish to migrate.
Bishan Singh, a tireless activist in his sixties, sits on a stump in front of seventy school children seated on reed mats in the compound of a Jakun village in Kampung Putut. He has several messages for the youngsters. "Everyday we are confronted with ecological destruction," he tells the attentive faces before they embark on a tour of the lake. "Every campaign needs a hero, someone who is brave enough to take action." After 20 years of teaching and decades more working with grassroots community groups, Bishan has seen many heroes emerge. "You can do ordinary things and become extraordinary."
Gathered together to kick-off a programme aimed at exposing youth to environmental education, Bishan Singh is one of five Amazing Malaysians for 2006 chosen by DiGi Telecommunications. Under Bishan's guidance, these kids will spend three months at Tasik Chini learning about nature conservation, Orang Asli practices and how each of them can play a part to protect natural heritage.
In 2004, Bishan spearheaded the Save Tasik Chini Campaign (STCC) in an effort to protect the environment and the livelihood of the Orang Asli communities scattered around the lake. Previously, the government tried to relocate the Jakun into one settlement, but many moved back to their original lands where ancestral spirits remain. "Like the lake itself, they are killing the culture of the Orang Asli," says Bishan. "Our campaign extends to the people as well."
Working with the village elders, the STCC seeks to organize a Society for the Protection of Tasik Chini that includes key stakeholders and engages with government officials responsible for managing the lake. By integrating traditional knowledge with modern applications, the campaign works to rehabilitate the lake, regenerate plant and animal species, inculcate sustainable ecotourism practices and provide a sound environment and lifestyle for Orang Asli families. To disseminate awareness to Tasik Chini dwellers and provide an avenue to promote traditional knowledge, a Community Information Centre is planned for Kampung Puput. Campaigns end, so the ultimate aim is to transfer ownership to the Tasik Chini community.
Two years ago, a team from the National University of Malaysia (UKM) found unacceptable levels of bacteria in the lake that put villagers, especially children and the elderly, at risk. It remains unsafe to drink water from the lake and wells. The contaminants were traced to improper sewage disposal from a resort and the national service camp, a facility that houses up to 800 trainees. In essence the lake is choking from a lack of oxygen. Stagnant waters do not refresh oxygen supplies as bacteria from sewage and animal wastes climbed to 56 times the DOE standard for recreation waters. And like vultures on a fresh carcass, waterweed, known as ekor kuching, thrives in the decay as the lake dies. Lotus seeds entangled among these weeds never reach bottom to germinate and those that do find sunlight blocked by its carpet on the surface.
Tasik Chini deserves to be saved. It not only represents a rare ecosystem with unique attributes on the Malaysian landscape, but it also reminds us of our own folly in dealing with nature. Small changes matter in the web-of-life. And interconnectedness is vital to its simple and complex composition and execution.
The lake is dying but it is not dead. It still has a chance to flourish if the engineers, biologists, boatmen and bureaucrats understand that nature prefers to flow, not stop.
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Original URL: http://www.wildasia.org/main.cfm/ideas_lab/Lake_Chini
Published: 04 April 2006
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