Kota Kinabalu: Very dry and hot weather under cloudless skies ushered in the lunar Year of the Tiger.
Average maximum temperature hit 32-33 degrees Celsius during the new year period, said a Meteorological Services Department official.
"We are under the influence of El Nino right now," a meteorologist said but declined to elaborate or speculate how long this dry spell and heat may last.
But irrespective of El Nino, tap water continues to flow, thanks to the rain forests of the 139,919ha Crocker Range Park gazetted as a water catchment during the Berjaya Government era, which continues to feed our rivers.
Dry and hot spells are reminders of the importance of this protected water lifeline.
There were nine El Nino over the last 50 years.
The root cause of El Nino is large scale warming of the waters in the Eastern Pacific which disturbs ocean currents and, in turn, results in dwindling or even reversal of trade winds and rains.
Once normal trade winds flow in, this big-time climate system is disturbed, the hurt to agriculture, water and fishery production and eventually nutrition and human health begins.
Normally, winds blow east to west across the southern Pacific over the surface of the sea and bring warm surface water along with them to western Pacific.
In places like Peru, a normal wind flow results in abundant harvest of anchovy because as warm surface water get pushed away by winds, cooler, nutrient-rich from the deep rushes up to take it place, creating plenty of plankton-filled feeding grounds for the anchovy populations.
But when trade winds mysteriously relax, dwindle or reverse, warm water sloshes back east in a vast, slow wave.
So, along the coasts of tropical central America, like Peru for instance, the build-up of warm water, driving the thermocline (buffer zone between the upper layer of water and the frigid ocean below) down.
This abnormal process causes the cooler, nutrient-rich water to drop way down, along with the thermocline, driving the anchovy population down because of the drastic drop in plankton population.
In 1972 for instance, Peru anchovy landing dropped from 20 million tonnes to a mere 2 tonnes. While February and March are normal dry months in the west coasts of Sabah, El Nino may stretch it beyond.
One of the worst in memory was the 1998 mega El Nino when Kota Kinabalu received not even one drop of rain for six months, along with severe haze from forest fires which shrouded Southeast Asia for months.
Water level at the Babagon dam dropped to a precarious 80 metres above sea level compared to its maximum 128 metres.
"Basically, had it gone down any further, the water could not be used because its all mud down there," said Divisional Water Engineer, Teo Chee Kong.
Looking back further, one million acres of forests in Sabah were burnt during the 1982-3 El Nino. "For now, there is no water worry in KK because the water level at Babagon dam stands at 127m above sea level or 98 to 99 per cent full. It is the same at the Talepung reservoir in Tamparuli.
"If the dam level goes down, we pump water up from rivers like Tuaran River, the Moyog River and even the Papar River," Teo noted.
"The water level at these three rivers remain high at the moment so I don't foresee water problem in the West Coast over the next few months," Teo added.
Teo attributed the strong rivers to the total protection of the Crocker Range Park primary forest which continues to release water during the dry spells.
But have timber thieves intruded into the Crocker Range Park?
On a recent flight back to KK from Lahad Datu on a MASWing, skid trails starting from the back of a kampung were seen making inroads up along a ridge deep into the primary forest of what looked like inside the Crocker Range Park, in the Papar hinterlands.
There have also been complaints from the ground about such acitivities.
The Crocker Range Park, which is under the care of Sabah Parks, must investigate to ensure the vital hydrological function of the protected park which serves the water interest of millions is not terminated by irresponsible logging inside a protected park.
http://www.dailyexpress.com.my/news.cfm?NewsID=70777
No comments:
Post a Comment