Mining Pollution Orang Asli Artist Provides Water Filters To Kg Kelaik Villagers

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Indigenous artist Shaq Koyok took a different approach from his signature style to highlight the plight of Temiar Orang Asli in Kampung Kelaik, Gua Musang, Kelantan, who feared they were being poisoned by upstream iron mining operations.
ADSThe rivers near Kampung Kelaik had turned a rusty red since iron ore mining began in 2009, while recent testing by Malaysiakini showed exceedingly high levels of chromium - a carcinogen - in one villager’s blood.
Shaq, who is from the Temuan Orang Asli tribe, and the inventor of the water filtering technology, Efinity Easy Water Filters distributed 40 water filters to the villagers in Kampung Kelaik.
“The villagers are dependent on river water for daily water consumption and with these water filters, they will have clean filtered water for drinking and cooking,” he said after handing out the filters to villagers on Saturday.
He expressed doubt that government assistance would arrive anytime soon, making these water filters crucial in ensuring the community has safe water to drink when their supply is not clean.
“Access to clean drinking water was essential for life,” Shaq stressed.
With no piped water, villagers lost their main source for drinking, bathing, and fishing after the river turned red.

Local NGOs helped the villagers by tapping water from a different hill, and applying the gravity pipe system starting at a “tandak” (mini reservoir), to distribute water to their homes.
Indigenous artist Shaq Koyok giving the thumb’s up to clean waterHowever, the safety of the water is still in question.
Samples tested
Following a Malaysiakini exposé last December, the Health Ministry tested river water samples from a “tandak” and found it met the standards for arsenic, chromium, ferum and aluminium, although the tandak is not located downriver from the iron ore mines suspected of causing river pollution.
ADSThe location of other samples collected and results were not disclosed.
The Malaysiakini report revealed high levels of chromium - a carcinogenic heavy metal - in the blood of one of six Orang Asli villagers whose families have been living downriver from the mines for generations.
The youngest of the six, a 19-year-old youth, had a chromium level that put him at a lifetime risk of developing cancer at an estimated 64,000 times higher than normal.
Kampung Kelaik villagers with their water filters, invented by Teng Yu-Mein (left) and Robest Yong (second from right)In the same month, the Natural Resources and Environmental Sustainability Ministry ordered the iron ore mines in Bukit Tambun to halt operations over suspected heavy metal contamination in nearby rivers.
Mid-last month, the Health Ministry collected blood, hair and nail samples of at least 60 of the 200 Temiar villagers in Kampung Kelaik, leaving out children and the elderly.
Social enterprise for water filters
Efinity Easy Water Filters, a social enterprise founded by husband and wife team Robest Yong and Teng Yu-Mein said their devices fitted with membrane filtration can also filter out E. coli.
“It’s very easy to fit and clean,” said Teng while demonstrating the process.
“The filter set contains repurposed easy to replace items like a 1.5L drink bottle and a bicycle pump to create the pressure to push the water into the membrane filter,” she explained.
Robest Yong (right) teaching Kampung Kelaik villagers how to use the water filterShe demonstrated to the Temiar men and women how to clean the membrane filter by rinsing in clean water and no soap or scrubbing was required.
She said they were also considering submitting their device to the National Water Services Commission for certification. - Mkini

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