Sungai Muda to become water basin, ecotourism destination - SPAN chairman

SHAH ALAM - The Murray-Darling Basin in Australia is a breathtaking natural masterpiece that captivates the senses with its diverse and enchanting beauty. It stretches across four Australian states and territories – New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, and South Australia – blending landscapes, ecosystems and lifeforms in one for human needs, ecological health and economic activities including leveraging on tourism.

Now just imagine, if that were to exist in Malaysia.

National Water Services Commission (SPAN) Chairman Charles Santiago this possible. The location? Sungai Muda in Kedah.

Santiago said they were drafting out plans to transform the longest river in Kedah into a water basin ecotourism destination just like the one in Australia.

Not only would the river be supplying water to the people, he said it would also play a role in attracting tourists and boosting the local economy in the surrounding areas.

“This is a long term plan and the relevant ministry has to take it up, we have made our recommendations to the government.

“It will be managed Irrigation and Drainage Department and ensure a well-planned project, and expected to take some time as it involves land and borders,” he said during Sinar Daily’s Top News Podcast session.

Sungai Muda for the past few months has been in the limelight following when in May this year experienced a sudden drop in water levels caused by the damage to he river’s barrage gate affecting both Kedah and Penang.

Among areas affected in Kedah were Sungai Petani, Bedong, Pantai Merdeka, Kulim, Lunas and Kuala Ketil, while Penang experienced “extreme drop” as Sungai Muda supplies 80 per cent of the state’s water.

Charles said the plan to transform the river into a water basin was key to ensure the were no repeats of the recent incident.

“This is a good plan especially after the faulty barrage gate at Sungai Muda that caused disruption in Penang in May.

“We have made them (Kedah, Penang and the relevant stakeholders) to sit together at the same table to talk and settle the issue. Sometimes, we just need to make a phone call to solve a problem.

“I believe it was a technical glitch involving technology that is 20 years old, and there were maintenance issues as well thus we now must look and monitor it more carefully. Both sides have agreed there were problems thus will work together to ensure the problems does not happen again.

“If it repeats, that’s another RM500 million to RM600 million of losses,” he added.

Santiago said the two rounds of water supply disruptions that had taken place back in May was one scheduled while the other unscheduled. He added that the unscheduled disruption had impacted factories especially those where not prepared with water storage.

“Even in Kedah, it took almost a week before they got their water supply back. It is very challenging thus we do not want a repeat of this. Everybody has to focus on communicating better with each other,” he said.

Santiago also touched on floods in Kedah, where he urged the state government to better manage the situation as it would affect the agriculture sector, farmers and their water supply.

He reiterated that the crucial thing now was to change the 20-year old technology and mechanisms in place now as it does not work.

“If you don’t do something about it now, there will be a disaster waiting to happen,” he said.