Where the buck should stopAn appeal by Ramakrishnan Ramasamy,
President of Reach (Regional Environmental Awareness for Cameron Highlands).
"To the visitor traveling from Simpang Pulai to Cameron Highlands, the scenery is most beautiful until you reach the Pahang border. Two kilometers into the border and the land clearing becomes visible from the roads. You will see farms on the sides of roads, on hill slopes and lately on hill and mountain tops. There is nothing wrong with farms if they are well-planned and located on land suitable for farming. But these are not and eventually with most of the forest cover gone, our current water shortages will be compounded.
If you are staying in resorts in Tanah Rata, you will be fairly cushioned from all this but take a leisure walk towards the once picturesque Orang Asli village of Sungai Ruil near the golf course and the true picture of Cameron Highlands emerges.
Besides all this, there are the 'gerai'(stalls). There are even 'gerai' on top of the towns' septic tanks, permanent 'gerai' in car-parks, 'gerai' over monsoon drains etc. This has led to a serious lack of parking spaces resulting in traffic jams during holidays that can even rival KL's jams.
Other illegal structures are also sprouting all over Camerons Highlands. In Brinchang, holiday bungalows without a proper CF and foundationa are erected by the slopes (visible from the Brinchang wet market). Restaurants and strawberry nurseries can appear literally overnight.
If ever there was a town where corruption is running wild, Cameron Highlands takes the cake..."
If you are staying in resorts in Tanah Rata, you will be fairly cushioned from all this but take a leisure walk towards the once picturesque Orang Asli village of Sungai Ruil near the golf course and the true picture of Cameron Highlands emerges.
Besides all this, there are the 'gerai'(stalls). There are even 'gerai' on top of the towns' septic tanks, permanent 'gerai' in car-parks, 'gerai' over monsoon drains etc. This has led to a serious lack of parking spaces resulting in traffic jams during holidays that can even rival KL's jams.
Other illegal structures are also sprouting all over Camerons Highlands. In Brinchang, holiday bungalows without a proper CF and foundationa are erected by the slopes (visible from the Brinchang wet market). Restaurants and strawberry nurseries can appear literally overnight.
If ever there was a town where corruption is running wild, Cameron Highlands takes the cake..."
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