Water is the linking factor that strings all components of the environ-ment together. Any modifications or changes to the ecosystem in the drainage basin will ultimately affect both the water quality and quantity. The interdependence of water and its related ecosystems, such as forests and wetlands exemplifies the importance of manag-ing ecosystems in their entirety to protect the ecology as well as the ecological services they provide, which is vital in ensuring water resources sustainability. This brings on the justification for the need to manage river basin in an integrated manner (Blumenfeld et al, 2009). The adoption of the drainage basin approach underlying the integrated water resources management (IWRM) process has been promoted throughout Malaysia. At the Federal level, the National Water Resources Council (NWRC) was established in order to effect a more comprehensive management of water resources (Malaysian Water Partnership, 2001). States are encouraged to draft their own water resources enactment for the better management and protec-tion of their water resources that applies the IWRM process.
Pahang State Authority had taken up the challenge and had drafted the Pahang Water Resources Enactment 2007 (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Pahang Enactment’). It vested the State Authority with the overall responsibility for the control of water resources and abstrac-tion of raw water in the State of Pahang, and other incidental power to execute such responsibility (Preamble and Section 3, Pahang Water Resources Enactment 2007). The State Authority may declare any lake or water resource or any part thereof, or its surroundings to be a catchment area and the Enactment provides for the power to
regulate the catchment areas to prevent pollution, contamination or siltation of any river or reservoir in the catchment areas. (Sections 6 and 7, Pahang Water Resources Enactment 2007) The State Author-ity is entitled to appoint a public officer to be the Director of Water Resources. The Director shall have the duty to exercise regulatory functions in respect of water resources and raw water, including the planning and development of strategies, standards and procedures relating to the control, management, conservation and utilisation of water resources and raw water (Sections 10 and 11, Pahang Water Resources Enactment 2007).
Although the Pahang Enactment adequately establishes a frame-work for the management of water resources in the Pahang State, it falls short of providing a comprehensive legislative framework for the integrated management of water resources. The control and management of the water resource rest solely on the Director of Water Resources appointed by the State Authority, without provid-ing a platform for participation by other stakeholders. A legislative act specifically provided for the control of water resources is the most effective mechanism to coordinate and harmonise all stakeholders’
interest and to promote integration. The lack of this platform that promotes an integrated approach in the Pahang Enactment deemed a missed opportunity to enhance the positive efforts undertaken by the various relevant national institutions in their implementation of obligations under the MEAs. The continuity of the efforts taken under Malaysia’s compliance with the MEAs discussed above will be better incorporated into the management of the basin if the participatory approach, crucial to the IWRM process, is enshrined in law.
It is suggested that the contemporaneous Kedah Water Resources Enactment 2007 (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Kedah Enactment’) on the management and control of water resources in the State of Kedah is a better legislative model that complements the interlink-ages created by the MEAs, and transfers the synergies created to the management of river basin through an IWRM approach. The Pream-ble of the Kedah Enactment expressly provides for the integrated management of the use, development and protection of water
re-sources in the State of Kedah. The scope of the Kedah Enactment is expansive where the interpretation section of the Kedah Enactment defines ‘river basin’ as “any river and the land area it drains”, to include activities on land that the river drains (Section 3, Kedah Water Re-sources Enactment 2007). Protection of the river basin is found in Part VII for the declaration of river reserves or water conservation areas (Sections 34 and 36, Kedah Water Resources Enactment 2007).
The institutional arrangements envisaged in the Kedah Enactment adopts an integrated approach whereby the membership of the Water Resources Board, of which the Water Resources Director is ac-countable to, consist of the Head of State, State Legal Advisor, State Finance Officer, the Water Director himself, and representatives from various relevant governmental departments (Section 5, Kedah Water Resources Enactment 2007). The IWRM process is further strength-ened in the Kedah Enactment where public participation, in the form of comments and objections on any river basin plan, or licensing of any significant activities, is expressly provided in Section 21 of the Kedah Enactment.
Conclusion
The PRB is an interesting case study to demonstrate how the inter-linkages and synergistic relationship established through the com-pliance of international environmental obligations can be translated into actual action on the ground through an IWRM process properly supported by the appropriate legal framework operational on the river basin level. Malaysia’s endeavour in meeting its international en-vironmental obligations especially the CBD and the Ramsar Conven-tion, have spearheaded the adoption of a crosssectoral approach in addressing environmental concerns in the country. Its international commitments compel Malaysia to implement measures that em-brace the protection and conservation of the environment.
Due to the physical unity of the environment in a drainage basin, any modifications or changes to the environment will necessarily have an impact on water resources. The provisional services provided by
the ecosystems, in particularly the provision of freshwater, will be greatly enhanced through the preservation and protection of the environment - its biodiversity and its ecosystems. The international environmental regimes, most notably, the body of MEAs established, present a legal reading of the IWRM approach, which provide for a comprehensive and adaptive legal framework for intersectoral and interinstitutional coordination (Boisson de Chazournes, 2010).
It is unfortunate that Pahang State does not adopt a more IWRM oriented approach in the drafting of its Water Resources Enactment, despite the advantages gained on the conservation and environ-mental protection front by the Malaysia’s observance of conservation obligations imposed by these MEAs. These advantages will be better captured and more readily translated into action at the river basin level if the appropriate legal framework for the management and development of river basin is in place. However, notwithstanding the lack of supportive water resources legislation at the state level, recent research had looked at the necessary institutional framework crucial to the implementation of IWRM process in the Pahang River Basin (Tan et al, 2009).
In conclusion, although Malaysia has the sovereign right to exploit its own resources pursuant to its developmental policies, as a signatory to the Rio Declaration 1992, it is obliged to recognise environmental protection as an integral part of the development process (Principles 2, 3 and 4, Rio Declaration 1992). The institutional and governance interlinkages proposed by the MEAs of which Malaysia had commit-ted itself, create an enabling environment for the integration of land, water and living resources in the sustainable and equitable utilisa-tion of natural resources in the country. The observautilisa-tion by Malaysia of its conservation obligations under the MEAs as discussed above provides the necessary stepping-stone for the implementation of an integrated development and management of its river basins.
Most importantly, a supportive legislative framework operational at the river basin level that enforces the interlinkages created through the implementation of the MEAs, is crucial to realise the maximum benefits derived from these interlinkages in the comprehensive
management of water resources that safeguard the equitable and sustainable use of water.Further thought for reflection
The Federal Government of Malaysia had decided to execute the Pahang-Selangor Raw Water Transfer Project in order to address the problem of water shortage in the Federal Territories. The project en-tails the construction of dams and the impoundment in Hulu Sel-angor (in the State of SelSel-angor) of a total surface area of 600 ha with a total catchment area of 19,700 ha, including nearly a thousand hectares of low montane forest (CAP, 1999). The construction of the Kelau Dam with a reservoir area of 24 km2 at the Pahang end will in-undate the Lakum Forest Reserve, which is rich in biological diversity (Raja Zainal Abidin, 2004; Imhof, 2003). Despite serious threats identi-fied through the Detailed Environmental Impact Assessment (DEIA) conducted, they are deemed insufficient to deter the implementa-tion of the project. The inclinaimplementa-tion to adopt an engineering soluimplementa-tion (which modifies and destroys the environment) in resolving water shortages is alarming. An ecocentric outlook that favours conserva-tion should prevail over maximum utilisaconserva-tion of natural resources for short term economic or developmental gains.
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