Concrete and Rain

“To save a pair of mice,

Pull up a dancing bear.”

Hmmm. Not sure that’s right.

Hold that thought for a moment while I go and use ‘Google’. Just chat among yourselves for a moment.

OK. Sorry. It is actually:

“They paved paradise

And put up a parking lot”

Courtesy of the great Joni Mitchell’s ‘Big Yellow Taxi’, of course.

Joni Mitchell, you will recall, is a Seventy-Four year-old Canadian who wrote and sang wonderful tunes. Our Transatlantic cousins would say, “Back in the day!” I presume them to mean ‘some time just before breakfast.’

The point of the song was that she, Joni, was bemoaning the need to cover the planet with a layer of concrete.

It goes on today.

In the old days, rain would pour down, soak into the ground and add to the aquifer, an underground reservoir of water. Any overspill would leach out slowly and gather into streams and then rivers, making its way to the sea to be recycled by sunshine as rain. Clean, pure rain that was ever so mildly acidic as a minute amount of carbon dioxide had been added to it.

Now the polluted rain pours down, hits concrete and rushes off into the drains to gather in rivers.

The aquifer gets lower because there is less replenishment of water.

Humans are suffering because there is an increasing experience of flash floods.

We have here, in Malaysia, a problem in that the people who grow Palm Oil Plantations (previous ‘Blog’, qv.) require the jungle to be cleared for their product. This is not harmful vis-à-vis the flooding but it is harmful to a multitude of creatures that used to live in the jungle – not least of them are the orang asli (aboriginals). Where do they go? We cannot, for certain, have tigers and elephants wandering around the city streets in search of food lest we form part of that food chain. Well, OK, not for elephants, perhaps, but they are capable of wreaking a lot of damage when they get irritated; living in the city will almost certainly irritate them a lot as much as it irritates us!

The other aspect is that Malaysia is growing. Many countries around the World are growing in terms of population.

An enlarging population means that more housing is required. Houses are definitely part of the ‘concretisation’ of the planet.

Large housing estates are springing up all over the place. Jungle has been cleared and concrete has been laid down as a basis upon which to build those houses.

In many parts of Malaysia, as elsewhere no doubt, these housing estates have been left to rot. They are incomplete.

Developers, with an eye to the ‘quick buck’, have hastily thrown up estates that have either not been bought or have not had approval. Thus they are abandoned. The ground is still covered in concrete whether someone lives there or not.

One advantage to high-rise apartments is that a unit that contains upwards of 250 homes now covers a relatively small ground area since the homes are built upwards rather than outwards.

Nevertheless, there comes a point where saturation point is reached – there are more homes for sale than there are people who want – or are willing, to buy them.

The price is also a stumbling block. We have, locally, small apartments that are grossly overpriced. Some people will buy them as investment or because they are close to the local amenities but, for many people, youngsters on low pay especially, they are beyond their means.

Concretisation of even that small area in an already overburdened urban area is adding to the problem of loss of soil, loss of soak-away.

Build a dam to hold the water?

Sixty years ago a dam was built a stone’s throw from our house. It is called the Klang Gate Dam. The villagers who were displaced by this dam were relocated in a village called Kampong Klang Gate Baru (New Klang Gate Village) in the Klang Gate Quartz Ridge (Dyke).

The Klang Gate Quartz Ridge

The Klang Gate Dam

They were also compensated with a plot of land that used to be a rubber plantation but, because the price of rubber fell, the plantation was no longer required – it was returned to the State.

The villagers had no clue what to do with a couple of acres of rubber trees (see South Africa and Zimbabwe) so they sold them off until, at last, the land was owned by a Bank. That area is now a housing development.

From jungle to concrete in a few easy stages over sixty years.

Curiously, a little while ago a Minister and his entourage visited our area for a chin-wag with us locals. I asked him about the plan to add three metres to the height of the dam. I was not concerned with the environmental aspect as you shall see.

Rather pompously he declared to all and sundry that more water is needed and this is a solution to resolving that crisis.

Asked him here the extra water is to come from?

“Does he have,” I asked, “Have some magical formula for extra rain?”

He did not understand because he is a politician and, therefore, comparable to two short planks.

I explained, “The dam has never been full. In over fifty years it has yet to become full. From whence cometh the water that will not only fill it but add another three metres to the depth.

He ignored me and proceeded to talk at the more obviously local locals.

It seems that the ‘three metre’ plan has been shelved.

So much for building dams to hold the spare water. If it does not soak into the aquifers it will never come down as rivers into the dams!

In the ‘Adepts: Book 1 – Furato’ there is a planet called Dulas that is almost completely dry. It is occasionally lashed with fierce storms that wash away any topsoil that remains. It was caused by covering the planet with concrete because nobody wants to live in the desert or on the ice caps. Everyone wants to live where it is warm and dry thus negating any chance of growing sufficient crops to feed everyone. Now everyone is almost dead of starvation and disease.

Developers? Architects, town planners? Anyone who sees ‘green’ as a waste of space really need your bumps read.

Joni Mitchell? Take your ‘Big Yellow Taxi’ and come back.

“You don’t know what you’ve lost ‘til it’s gone…”