Catch 22@PJ: Doing the right thing wrongly

I was informed recently that the water quality of Bukt Gasing dropped from Standard II A or B to Standard III or IV. It was suspected that the water quality deterioration was due to the drain construction at the hill top. While i understood that the drain was constructed to facilitate better run off and water flow from within the hill and residential area, the little good gesture has affected the natural water system of Bukit Gasing. It is a clear showcase of doing the right thing wrongly. Very often we want to do good but do not know how to go about it, and even we have done it, it might be with the wrong tool or method.

Perhaps the capacity of MBPJ staff on environmental sustainability can be further improved. It is important to get people to understand that engineering solutions might be helpful in solving the urban infrastructure and human problem, it might however affect the natural environmental quality. We have to weight and appreciate the importance of nature to us. We have to extra careful when dealing with the environment. A decision that we all think is logical and simple might be haphazard to the environment, both short and long term. We might not have the opportunity to witness the impact of our decision, but if we do we might be regretted for what we have done unintentionally. For example, cutting down a tree with 0.8 metre diameter for road expansion purpose although there is other option, conveniently taking the drain and river as waste carrier, filling up the retention pond for development purpose, letting the running pipe to have free flow, procuring non recyclable stationary, encouraging the use of plastic bags and etc.

We are in the Catch 22 situation now. Unless people understand the environment and start evaluating their decisions based on sustainability performance, we will continue disturbing the environment as we do now. We have to embark on environmental education to build up people's awareness, knowledge, attitude and skill or else "NO CHANGE", business as usual.