Many Orang Asli of the Temiar tribe depend on the Belatop and nearby rivers for their daily needs, but these rivers have become polluted and filled with yellow sand.

The Orang Asli believe that the pollution is from soil erosion caused by development and land clearing in Lojing.

According to Star Online, many tractors have been observed clearing land along the once-pristine Lojing Highlands. Many plots of land on the hillside bear sheets of greenhouse plastic, similar to those found at vegetable farms in the neighbouring Cameron Highlands.

Other rivers such as Sungai Jedip and Sungai Deng­kong were reported to have turned a murky ‘teh tarik’ colour.

A former villager, Nasir Dollah, who used to live in a settlement in Lojing, was quoted as saying he could no longer fish in the rivers in the area. “We can no longer depend on the river. We need to buy our fish.”

Although the settlements had piped water supply, the water, which comes from the rivers, could no longer be used for even washing or cooking.

Isa Alang, the head of Community Development and Security at Pos Brooke, lamented that they could not even bathe in the rivers any more.

“If we want fresh river water, we have to walk very far, up to three to four hours into the jungle,” he said, adding that the community of 200 villagers now had to fully rely on piped water.

Isa said the community has raised this issue with various parties, including the land office, numerous times, but the issue had yet to be resolved.

In the past week, the issue of land clearing in Kelantan has come under the spotlight.

On Thursday, Kelantan Forestry Director Zahari Ibrahim announced the formation of a committee to resolve the illegal occupation of permanent forest reserves in Kelantan.

He had revealed that some 7,248ha of more than 600,000ha of permanent forest reserves in Kelantan had been illegally occupied since the 1980s for agriculture and had been developed into settlements.