Floods round-up: Reclamation work may be a cause,31
Jan 2007.JOHOR BARU: The massive land reclamation work by Singapore
at Pulau Tekong may have ontributed to the recent
floods.---http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/nst/Wednesday/National/20070131091211/Article/index_html
The land reclamation is said to have narrowed the river mouth of
Sungai Johor, causing the massive destruction in Kota Tinggi.
Menteri Besar Datuk Abdul Ghani Othman said the narrowing of the
river mouth had slowed the discharge of excess rain water into the
Johor Straits.
He was speaking after receiving a RM5 million donation from the
Al-Bukhary Foundation for the Johor flood victims.
Singapore started land reclamation in 2002 along the eastern and
western parts of the Johor Straits, near the Malaysian
mainland.
The republics reclamation work, involving 5,214ha of sea area, is
expected to be completed in 2010.
It would lengthen the headland in Tuas by 7km and double the size
of Pulau Tekong, which lies opposite the mouth of Sungai
Johor.
Malaysia launched international arbitration proceedings against
Singapore in October 2003, saying the land reclamation had damaged
its interests by, among other things, narrowing the shipping lanes
around the Johor Straits.
It also applied to the International Tribunal for the Law of the
Sea for an interim order to stop the reclamation works.
The Hamburg-based tribunal heard the case in September 2003. It
then ruled that the reclamation could continue, but ordered both
sides to set up an independent group of experts to study the
impact.
It was agreed that the recommendations of the experts would be used
as the basis of a "mutually acceptable and beneficial
solution".
Ghani said Kota Tinggi was in urgent need of new flood mitigation
measures.
"One option is to widen the banks of Sungai Johor."
There was a need for new and radical measures as Kota Tinggi would
otherwise suffer from repeated flooding.
To worsen the problem, excess rain water from upstream and the
surrounding catchment areas also flowed into Sungai Johor, causing
its banks to burst.
fr NST
Tekong reclamation boundary
No. 151 of 2006,03-11-2006,RECLAMATION AT PULAU
TEKONG
