Cameron Highlands Lake Rehab

It's about time they did something about the Cameron Highlands' Sultan Abu Bakar Lake. The silting has pretty much made the lake an eyesore. I still remember way back about 10 years ago, when the lake was still beautiful. Now all it resembles is a mud pie.

The lake is part of a dam used by Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) for generating electricity at the Jor and Woh power stations located downstream generating about 250 megawatts of electricity. TNB has decided to engage contractors to desilt the lake by dredging and removing the silt and sediment, according to CH TNB general manager, Mohd Safian Ismail.

It is estimated to take a couple of years to finish the job. Probably by end of 2007. But when I asked the Lakehouse manager, he said probably it will take 3 years or more. But given the terrible state of the lake and the few times they tried to remove the silt, probably would not be cleared at all, the manager opinioned.

However the silt is the result of overdevelopment in the Cameron Highlands. With the silt and mud washed down from the river from development upstream, the Department of Environment has recommended TNB to build rubbish and silt traps, in which TNB will implement it soon. Otherwise all the desilting effort would be wasted as more silt and sediment get washed down to be trapped at the lake nullifying the effort of cleaning up the lake.

Not cheap to do it too, for it cost about RM150 million to rehabilitate the lake.

Well, let's hope TNB would go all the way to clean up the lake. It would be such a shame especially with the government call for 'Love Our River' campaign and the effort was done half heartedly.