Agriculture firms to lose contracts if they break the rules

Deceptive calm: A man fishing at the Sembrong Dam, where the water quality has continued to worsen.

KLUANG: Agriculture companies which do not adhere to farming regulations around the Sembrong Dam will face tough action, including having their concession agreement terminated.

This includes those who encroach on the dam’s buffer zone or use excessive pesticides.

Agriculture, Agro-based Indus­tries, Entrepreneurship Develop­ment and Cooperatives Committee chairman Ismail Mohamed said besides the Kluang Modern Farming project, other contributors to pollution were oil palm plantations, housing areas and animal-rearing farms within the huge catchment area.

“Based on the water samples collected each year, the water quality has been deteriorating due to many activities around the dam,” he said.

Kluang Modern Farming, he said, had since taken measures to address the problem, which included stopping all farming activities along the dam’s buffer zone, channelling all water from the farms into retention ponds and building proper drainage.

On the use of pesticides, he said the Agriculture Department had been carrying out surveillance and advising the farmers to follow good farming practices.

“We have also conducted tests to ensure that their produce conforms to the chemical residual levels set by the Health Ministry,” he added.

The Sembrong Dam, a major water source for 120,000 people in the Kluang district and parts of the Batu Pahat district, is surrounded by oil palm plantations, farming and the 3,480ha Kluang Modern Farming.

The dam, which was built for flood mitigation in 1984 and is managed by the Department of Irrigation and Drainage, has been providing water for consumption since 1990.

The Star reported yesterday that the water quality at the Sembrong Dam continued to deteriorate due to the presence of high levels of blue-green algae, which is believed to have been caused by excessive farming around the area.

Universiti Teknologi Malaysia Resource Sustainability Research Alliance dean Prof Dr Zulkifli Yusop said based on a recent study in the area, the algae had reached 99% of the total algae population, posing a health hazard.

Meanwhile, State Health, Envi­ron­ment, Education and Informa­tion Committee chairman Datuk Ayob Rahmat said he would get the Health Department to immediately collect water samples for testing.

“We are concerned as we do not want to cause any health risks to the public,” he said.

He added that the state government had previously come up with strategies to overcome the problem, such as ordering a pig farm to close and ensuring that the cattle farms in the area adhered to the strict regulations.

“There was a suggestion to fence up the dam, but it involves tens of millions of ringgit,” he said.

Asked about the modern farming project, Ayob said it was a federal project and needed to be closely monitored to prevent the situation from worsening.