$550M plan to help Malaysian farmers

Press, 5 December 1979, Page 14

$550M plan to help Malaysian farmers

PA Auckland New Zealand planners have prepared a multi-mil-lion dollar development scheme to break a cycle of poverty and flooding in North Malaysia. The SSSOM scheme is intended to change the lives of 800.000 Malaysians in the north-eastern state of Kelantan. A team of 30 people, mostly New Zealanders, spent 2| years in the area finding' ways to combat the never-ending pattern of flooding and drought in the Kelantan river basin. Heading the $2.5M study for the two years before its completion in 1977 was an Auckland engineer, Mr P. Nissen, the recent winner of the premier Hume Prize from the Institution of Engineers for his paper on the study. Heat is the only aspect of the Kelantan climate that remains constant, he says. Flood and drought dominate the lives of thousands of farmers, making it one of the poorest areas in Malaysia. Between November and January the lOOkm-long Kelatan River frequently bursts its banks with monsoon rains, sweeping away homes and ruining crops. In 1967. water pouring

down from the jungle-cov-ered hills around Kelantan overflowed the river and swept down the low coastal plains, drowning 55 people and leaving 300,000 homeless. Hard on the heels of flooding comes drought. Irrigation reaches only a quarter of the suitable coastal land and pumps frequently break down during the dry season, causing ' serious water shortages. Traditional agricultural techniques in the rice paddies and rubber plantations cripple production and compound the problem. Land is divided equally among heirs, according to Islamic law, often leaving farmers with several tiny scattered holdings around their village. New Zealand’s involvement with Kelantan began in 1974, when the then Malaysian Prime Minister (Tun Abdul Razak) asked the New Zealand Government for technical help to the beleaguered region as a bilateral aid programme. Shortly after, a two-man appraisal mission from New Zealand assessed the problems. They proposed formulation of a master plan to develop water resources projects including flood control, land drainage and irrigation, hydro-

electric power, and water supplies. Engineers, scientists, hydrologists, geologists, economists, agriculturalists and statisticians were among the New Zealand study team which followed. New Zealand paid for $l.B million of the scheme; Malaysia financed the rest of the $2.5 million cost. The team collected extensive physical, agricultural and economic data, with help from Malaysian Government agencies. They surveyed extensively and devised a master plan Mr Nissen considers to be ambitious, but feasible — a $550 million capital works programme with agricultural and farm improvements over the next 30 years. There will also be social problems. One of the dam reservoirs will flood land occupied by 10,000 people, who will have to be shifted on to higher ground. The team found a relocation site which could accommodate another 20,000 people, but the Government will be sensitive to local resistance, he says.

“In the end the Kelantan farmers will make or break the programme by deciding whether they will accept a change.”