24/09/2012 (The Sun Daily) - The alarming rate of river pollution along the majestic rainforest lowlands of Kinabatangan, Sabah, has prompted the WWF-Malaysia to call on the state government to support the setting up of a central management committee to urgently address the issue.

Its executive director/CEO Datuk Dr Dionysius Sharma said the water quality at Lower Kinabatangan's Segama wetlands has declined significantly due to palm oil mills and plantations located in the area.

He stressed that that although the water pollution issue is currently being addressed by local non-governmental organisations and both state and federal agencies, it had brought about poor management to effectively tackle the problem.

"The result is a rather ad hoc collection of uncoordinated approaches. This has led to some pollution problems not being adequately and promptly dealt with," he said in a recent statement.

Sprawling across a vast 78,803ha area, the Lower Kinabatangan-Segama Wetland is a Ramsar Site, which means that it is named in the 'List of Wetlands of International Importance' under the Convention on Wetlands, an international treaty signed in Ramsar, Iran, in 1971.

"The WWF-Malaysia's Kinabatangan Corridor of Life (KCol) team actively worked towards setting all the necessary 'enabling factors' to establish a system that would allow continuous protection of the area by empowering the stakeholders and local communities so that they are able to undertake sustainable conservation," he said.

"This includes working with the ministry to develop a policy directive for the area, with the ultimate goal of forming the KCol Management Committee (KMC), a body responsible towards managing the area holistically," he added.

Sharma noted that a cabinet paper is being prepared to develop a body to mitigate the situation, together with the state's tourism, culture and environment ministry.

He also said WWF-Malaysia had in the past implemented conservation projects in the area during the late 1970s.