MALACCA: The long-term effect of land reclamation could be felt by the masses as marine-based produce and services deplete, along with coastal livelihoods, eventually directly impacting the cost of living.
A marine scientist said it was likely that reclamation works had caused the rapid and intensified coastal erosion that hit Kampung Hailam beach in Tanjung Kling recently.
Malaysian Society of Marine Sciences president Dr Harinder Rai Singh called on state and federal governments to weigh the socio-economic gains against the ecological losses.
He said ecologically sensitive areas such as the coast of Malacca had high biodiversity value.
“Coastal reclamation can affect coastal currents and wave fronts, which can affect sediment transport and sedimentation in coastal habitats such as mangroves, mudflats, corals, sandy beaches and seagrass beds.”
He was commenting on a New Straits Times special report on the proposed reclamation of a man-made island to be turned into the Kuala Linggi International Port (KLIP) project and the already rapid reclamation of Malacca’s southern coastline, which had raised public concern.
“Reclamation can cause coastal erosion and may also reduce current and wave energy, resulting in accretion of sediment. This may happen in the vicinity of the project or some distance away. The erosion in Kampung Hailam has probably been happening over the years, either due to natural causes or accelerated due to human intervention in the marine and coastal environment.”
Harinder said the question of how necessary reclamation was, compared with its adverse effects on ecology, remained one that divided public opinion.
“That is a socio-economic issue for the state and the federal governments to decide. Ecologically, reclamation is a disturbance, where changes to coastal and marine habitats are acute, and such changes can be drastic.
“One example is loss in feeding, nursery, breeding and spawning grounds for coastal organisms. For example, soil or sand dumping for reclamation smothers and kills sessile invertebrates that are the diet of demersal fish (bottom feeders).
“Mangroves, coral, seagrass, mudflat and shallow coastal water habitat loss is translated into loss of goods and services, which ultimately affects coastal livelihoods,” said Harinder, who is attached to the Faculty of Applied Sciences at Universiti Teknologi Mara’s Shah Alam campus.