The Kuala Tahan jetty on Sungai Tembeling which connects villagers residing along the riverbanks to the main town of Jerantut. — Pix courtesy of Wan Nazri Abd Wan Jamil
ONE of the most talked about tourist draws in Kampung Baru Sungai Pelek in Sepang is the ferry service that takes motorcyclists, cyclists and pedestrians across Sungai Sepang to Bukit Pelanduk in Port Dickson, Negri Sembilan.
What would have been a 48 minute drive by road, is reduced to a mere three minutes using the river route.
The ferry service run by the Tan family, has endured for three generations, starting with a sampan during the Japanese occupation to bigger boats that can ferry 12 passengers.
Ferry services such as the one across Sungai Sepang are not unique — in fact, rivers are the main mode of transportation in many remote areas in the peninsula as well as Sabah and Sarawak.
Lim says any river with a depth of four metres will be able to accommodate small barges with the capacity to carry cargo of no less than 400 tonnes. — Photos by SS KANESAN/The Star
One such river is Sungai Tembeling in Pahang.
Wan Nazri Abd Wan Jamil, 53, who runs an extreme sport outfit in Jerantut, said the river was used to ferry goods and passengers.
“Every day, villagers, especially those residing in Kampung Bantal, Kampung Pagi and Kampung Kuala Sat in Ulu Tembeling, would ride to and fro on long boats to the jetty at Kuala Tahan for their daily marketing or take a trip to town to access the ATM machines,” he said.
Wan Nazri added that the long boats were used as water ambulances as well as taxis where fares for trips could cost anything from RM1 to RM20, depending on the distance.
He said although a road was available not far from the villages, the travelling time was far longer to get into town.
Since most of the villages were located just by the river, it has become the transport route of choice for those residing there.
Viability and advantages
The use of riverways as a mode of transport should not only be confined to ferry services and water taxis, said Selangor Freight Forwarders and Logistics Association (SFFLA) honorary secretary-general Yeoh Kean Jin, 70.
“Technically, all rivers can be used for transportation. To develop this potential, surveys must be done on their depth and width to ascertain what size of vessels can be accommodated,” he told StarMetro.
Looking at the route of Sungai Klang for example, one can technically take a boat from the rivermouth all the way up to the heart of Kuala Lumpur, he said.
“If a survey can be done along the 120km length of the river and its 11 tributaries, it may reveal another transportation option for our congested city roads.
“If not for commercial cargo or public transport, it could be at least worth exploring as a transport option for tourists,” said Yeoh.
Datuk Peter Lim, who is managing director of a jetty along Sungai Langat in Selangor, said any river with a depth of four metres, could accommodate small barges with the capacity to carry cargo of no less than 400 tonnes.
Lim, who has 30 years of experience in the shipping field, said this was equivalent to over 10 heavy vehicles the size of 20-foot trucks if the same load was carried via road.
The use of barges to transport cargo using riverways reduces the number of heavy trucks plying roads, especially from the ports.
(The licence issued by the Commercial Vehicle Licensing Board only allows up to 38 tonnes of permissible laden weight for trucks.)
Another person who believed riverways could be a solution to address traffic congestion and cut down on the number of heavy vehicles needed to transport cargo by land is Malaysian Institute of Freight Forwarders training director Wee Ah Sah, 77.
“From statistics given by the Port Klang Authority for 2020, 4.5 million TEUs (20-foot equivalent units) of containers are trucked out of Port Klang per year.
“If you can take off 20% with the use of riverways, it could also save the government quite a lot of money.
“From a report by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, 60% of road maintenance in South-East Asia is necessitated by the use of heavy trucks,” said Wee, adding that the trucks had a lot of carbon dioxide emissions.
Selangor Freight Forwarders and Logistics Association vice-president Yeoh Keng Yao, 34, added that riverways were also ideal for the transportation of oversized items like pulpers for paper mills, where the journey by road from its manufacturer or port might be hindered by bridges, toll gates and overhanging electric cables.
“With such massive project cargoes, the hassle involved has seen transporters having to apply to the relevant authorities for obstructions to be dismantled and later reassembled.
“The application process alone to the road and all relevant authorities including Tenaga Nasional Bhd, can take months. Travel may only take place at night. Ensuing costs, which can run up to the hundreds of thousands of ringgit, will then have to be borne by the consignee,” he said.
On the other hand, a riverway, provided that there is a well-equipped jetty to accommodate the unloading of an oversized cargo, could eliminate a lot of hassle for the logistics provider as well as save the consignee a considerable amount of money and time, added Keng Yao.
Busy thoroughfares
At present, more than 50% of the transportation in Peninsular Malaysia made use of inland waterways. In Sabah and Sarawak, it’s 80%, said the Sarawak Association of Marine Industries president Renco Yong.
Yong, 45, has 20 years of experience in ship building, repair and services. Many of his customers are plying our national riverways.
“In Peninsular Malaysia, most of the river transport is done near Port Klang in Selangor; Lumut in Perak; Batu Pahat, Tanjung Pelepas Port and Kota Tinggi in Johor; Sungai Pahang, Sungai Kelantan and Sungai Terengganu. Small cargo vessels from inland use these rivers as a feeder service to reach the mother ships at the sea ports.”
A barge docked at the Sritama Jetty in Telok Panglima Garang, Selangor, awaiting goods to be loaded.
He said transportation activities in riverways had increased in the past few years due to mining activities, among other things.
“In Lumut there is a hive of river transportation activity right up to Teluk Intan. All an observer has to do is to stand by the river to see barges carrying coal, aggregate, river sand and silica sand being transported to awaiting ships at Port Klang during the day and at night.
“From the port they are sent to private jetties for unloading and then trucked to construction sites.
“In Kelantan, Terengganu and Pahang the mining of iron ore, bauxite and river sand has resulted in the need for cargo transportation solutions that can address issues of volume and cost.
“Due to the big amount of cargo movement, it has to be carried by inland waterways. Small tug boats are required to pull a barge into the river and close to the mining site to be carried out to the port or depot for storage as the mother vessel at the port cannot come into the inland waterway,” said Yong.
“In Sabah and Sarawak, just for sand mining alone, statistics from the Sarawak River Board reveal that 700 ships traverse river routes to reach the major ports in Kuching, Miri, Sibu and Bintulu on a daily basis,” he added.
In Selangor, Wee said Sungai Langat was the most viable waterway in terms of transporting commercial cargo. This river passes through the Teluk Panglima Garang industrial zone.
Wee also knows of a barge service in Sungai Langat that travelled as far as 78km upstream to carry cargo weighing up to several thousand tonnes for a steel mill. It then exits the rivermouth near Pantai Kelanang and into the Straits of Malacca to transport the cargo to Port Klang for export or up Sungai Perak to factories along the river.
Sungai Selangor is another viable waterway as barges with capacities of 3,000 tonnes each were used to carry mined river sand along the route several years ago, he added.
Environmental concerns
Though the transportation of cargo by riverways could be more economical, reduce traffic congestion on roads and consequently, bring down carbon emissions, environmentalist urged caution.
Global Environment Centre (GEC) river care programme manager Dr Kalithasan Kailasam said while the idea of reduced carbon emission might look good on paper, they must not forget that activities such as the loading and unloading of goods from barges to lorries also produced carbon emissions.
“So, one needs to look at the practicality of whether the river distance is long enough to offset such emission,” he said.
Another factor that needed to be taken into account was the preparations needed to ensure a river was ready to accommodate such traffic.
Motorcyclists and pedestrians use the ferry service to get from Sungai Pelek to Bukit Pelanduk, which takes a mere three minutes. — Filepic
“If dredging or widening is going to be done, a thorough study must be made to assess the impact on the river ecology as well as its biodiversity.
“If the riverway is also a source of water intake, we cannot eliminate the possibility of pollution,” he said.
“In the end, any decision must be made in the interest of the public and be sustainable in terms of biodiversity and ecological preservation.”
Association of Water and Energy Research (Awer) president Piarapakaran Subramaniam echoed the fear of pollution.
“Should there be an accident resulting in chemical spills, we must bear in mind that the dilution properties of a river is not the same as the sea.
“As such, before any decision is made, an environmental impact assessment must be carried out,” he said.
