KG Asahan resident Ahmad Zafir Abdullah points to a bund in Sg Selangor, just 50m from his house.

After his village was flooded in October, he fears another deluge if the bund were to break. The walls of his house still bear the watermarks from the disaster a few months ago.

Beyond the bund, several hundred metres up the river, is the evidence and impact of sand-dredging activity: a pontoon floating on the river sucking out sand from the riverbed, eroding the riverbank and toppling large trees into the water.

Zafir fears that the ground where the bund stands would collapse if the dredging is allowed to continue unabated.

“If the bund were to break, this village would go underwater. There are more than 80 homes here. Imagine if it were to break at night,” he told The Malaysian Insight.

The dredging is done by sub-contractors appointed by the licensee, Kumpulan Semesta Sdn Bhd (KSSB), a state-owned company.

Zafir said the dredging has been ongoing for several years now and doesn’t appear to be in compliance with standard operating procedures.

At least two violations have been observed – the dredging work near his village is too close to riverbanks and the pontoon is blocking nearly the entire width of the waterway, making it difficult for other boats to pass.

On a boat ride along the river, Zafir pointed out the erosion on the riverbanks and the large trees, including palm oil trees, that had fallen into the water.

“About 100 trees along these banks have fallen into the river. The tree roots serve the function of holding together the earth in the riverbanks but now that the trees are gone, the bank is becoming even more eroded,” he said.

The erosion has widened the river to twice its former width, inching closer to the bund that protects the village from water swells. The distance between the river and the bund, which is next to a road, is now 50m.

Zafir also doubts the integrity of the bund. It was damaged twice but he said the operator merely filled in the cracks and gaps with dredged sand.

“We were lucky that when the bund broke, it wasn’t the rainy season or when the water level was high. But I’m not sure if the operator did a thorough job of repairing the bund. Now I worry that if it breaks, our village will flood in this current rainy season.”

The helmsman, who introduced himself as Suhael, said the sand-dredging pontoon had also spilled diesel into the river.

“We’ve seen diesel spillage. It’s the same thing that happened near Rantau Panjang,” he said, referring to diesel pollution in another part of the river in July this year that caused the shutdown of water-treatment plants and dry taps for millions in the Klang Valley.

Given that polluting activities like sand-dredging are taking place along Sg Selangor’s banks, Suhael said the state authorities should be doing water quality tests each month. He questioned why the people were not informed of the results.

Fisherman Shahrizal Abdul Rahim, 33, said sand-dredging had affected his catch of catfish. The trees that have fallen into the river also causes his boat to get stuck.

“I used to get RM300 but now it’s difficult to even get RM80. In the areas that are silted and eroded, I can only catch three fish. What is there to sell?”

Shahrizal said he had to go further up the river but even then, the rest of Sg Selangor is not spared from sand mining.

However, he observed that other operators further upstream were more compliant with the SOP than the ones downstream nearer Kg Asahan.

“The ones upstream only dredge in the middle of the river and don’t touch the sides. This follows the SOP. The water is a bit better up there with less sediment and the riverbanks are still in good condition.

“The two operators downstream are the worst. They are greedy. They are dredging not just in the middle but on the left and right banks as well,” said the fisherman.

He also said the operators should repair any damage to the riverbank but he had never seen the ones downstream do so.

Another villager Mohamed Azmi Abdullah, 43, said neither KSSB nor the Selangor authorities have responded to villagers’ complaints about the impact of sand dredging.

“Only recently when someone made an issue about it on Facebook and it went viral did the KSSB officials and the district council officer come to look at the area. KSSB said the operator must repair the banks before resuming work.

“After that, operations slowed down a bit but till now, the riverbanks have not been repaired,” said Azmi, who rears goats.

He believed it was better for the authorities to stop sand dredging in the area completely as it caused severe erosion.

“After such damage, it’s impossible to repair the banks. The damaged areas are right at a bend in the river. The flow of water continually hits the banks and the erosion won’t stop.

“I dread to think what this place will look like in four or five years if sand dredging isn’t stopped. Who will take responsibility then?” – December 23, 2019.