Thursday, April 29, 2010

REHABILITATION OF SUNGAI KLANG- AN EXERCISE IN FUTILITY?

What I gather from the newspapers it is going to be a major project that will swallow billions of RM and carried out over 15 years!! Is it going to be more a pipe dream or a reality? Can the project be guaranteed to be successful or is it going to be more money thrown into the polluted river? 15 years is a very long time…. Wonder if the guarantee if any will hold.
One of the most common erroneous assumption is that if the technology was successful for Thames or for the matter the mighty river Han, it does not mean it will be successfully applied for Sg Klang. (Maybe all the parties concerned have their own expert consultants to vouch that every thing will be ok! As for me it is far better to be realistic and prudent. The River Klang is very complex and have many problems. I for one would like to be proven that the project will work…
Would it not be better if the companies concerned are tested first for their ability by giving certain stretches of the rivers to be handled and their performance monitored? To me it is very logical that if the company cannot manage a small portion of the river, it will be questionable if they can rehabilitate the whole stretch of the rivers.
I would love to see the spirit of competition vying with one another in the race to rehabilitate the stretch of rivers given to them. Nothing could be more wrong if all the companies awarded are working in the same group. That is the reason why I like how the Petronas tenders are being awarded, with the Japanese and Koreans competing with each other to complete their own respective towers!
Rehabilitating the Klang river requires more than just mechanical equipment to remove trash or solid wastes. It is more than just building treatment plants along the river. The solution is complex and requires social engineering too. If not we will be back to square one after billions of RM has been pumped into the project.
I for one would not like to see the rehabilitation of Klang river as a very costly exercise in futility!


Type rest of the post here.

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