PETALING Jaya City councillor Derek Fernandez said that the cause of the poor water quality in the Bukit Gasing Education Forest is the drainage system in the area.

He said this in response to a report in StarMetro on March 11 headlined “Bukit Gasing still needs help”.

Fernandez, the councillor in charge of Zone 12 (Sections 5 and 10), said: “When new drainage was built after the landslide at the entrance to the forest in 2007, nobody considered the effect of bypassing the natural bio-filtration which previously existed.

Polluted water: Dr Wong (right) and Global Environment Centre River Care Programme coordinator Dr K. Kalithasan checking on the condition of the stream at the Bukit Gasing Education Forest.

“The contracts were awarded under the previous administration and the design of the drainage was made without taking into consideration the existing “marshy” area, where plants and friendly bacteria play a vital role in water filtration.

“Anybody who keeps ornamental fish understands that natural plants and friendly bacteria are vital in water filtration in natural ecosystems. The new drainage bypassed this and the new system itself is poor.”

Fernandez said there was a need to investigate how RM1mil was allegedly spent under the previous administration to address the issue.

“We are calling for a meeting next week with Datuk Dr Wong Sai Hou, the president of Association of Backpackers Malaysia, the Global Environment Centre, Friends of Bukit Gasing and officers from the Petaling Jaya City Council’s Environment, Health and Engineering Departments to come up with an effective solution.

“We are more than pleased to work with them. Regrettably, this could have been avoided if the drainage system design was vetted by the stakeholders before the contracts were awarded.”

Fernandez said that this showed the importance of having consultations with the stakeholders in the decision-making process.