SBEG 1112 GEOGRAPHIC STUDIES

Assignment Title:

Analysis of economic activities of Sungai Johor Basin

since 1990.

Group and Students’ Name List

GROUP 9

MUHAMMAD SAFWAN BIN RUSLAN A20BE0164

DHARSHINI A/P KALAIMANI A20BE0047

ANNSHALITA A/P PERAK SUT A20BE0022

DARISHINI A/P RAMU A20BE0045

VISVAMALAR A/P VIJAYAKUMARAN A20BE0315

11/05/2021
a. INTRODUCTION

River is the vital natural resource living things especially for the human being (as a substantial

role in the economic, social, cultural, religious), the provision of water supply domestic human

consumption, irrigation for agriculture, the accommodation of transport, industrial use and a

livelihood to the people. The accomplishment in the economic growth and industrialization in

Malaysia has convinced to environmental problems with ever increasing land, air and water pollution

(Ho, 1996).

Johor River is also known as one of the largest catchment area in the southern part of

Peninsular Malaysia with a total catchment area of 2751.72 km2 (Dorofki et al., 2012). The river flows

towards the north of the basin from the Bukit Gemuruh (at an altitude of 109m) and Gunung Belumut

(at an altitude of 1,010m) (Kia et al., 2012). The Johor River originates from its source of Layang-Layang

River and Sayong River in the upstream area before merger into the Johor River and flows down

towards the southeast of the Johor Straits estuarine. The major tributaries that are located at the

downstream of the Johor River are the Tiram and Lebam River (DID, 2000). In fact, the main tributaries

that diverged the Johor River are Sayong, Linggiu, Tiram and Lebam Rivers as shown in Fig. 1 . The

water temperature of the river is ranging from 21°C to 32°C.

TABLE 1 : WATER DEMAND IN JOHOR SINCE 1980’S

1
 Based on Kia et al. (2012), Johor River is rich with its magnificent beauty of the natural forest

and swamps that covers almost the major proportion of the landuse. Whereas, the southern part of

the basin is mostly covered by the oil palm and rubber plantations. The main cities that are located

adjacent to the Johor River basin are the Kota Tinggi with a total human population of 220000 people.

The total catchment area of the Johor River at Kota Tinggi is approximately 1620 km2 and the major

land use in the Johor River basin are mainly conquered by oil palm plantations, other types of crop

cultivations, urbanization, water body and swamps (Kia et al., 2012).

FIGURE 1: JOHOR RIVER BASIN

Meanwhile economy is the large set of inter-related production, consumption, and exchange

activities that aid in determining how scarce resources are allocated. With that, the production,

consumption, and distribution of goods and services are used to fulfill the needs of those living and

operating within the economy, which is also referred to as an economic system. Economy is refers to

the activities that carried out by the people for their survivals in the a certain place. So, in this

assignment we will see that what kind of ec0onomics had been carried out throughout the Johor River

Basin , where from Sayong, Tiram, Lebam and Linggui rivers. As we know these mainstreams in Johor

2
River Basin do have its own economy within the area and its actually helps in the growth of economics

in the state of Johor.

Johor River needs to be conserved well as it is functioning as the main water source for the

urbanizing plans. Ecological considerations such as sustainability of life for the aquatic life and

freshwater resource for human are the key to an amalgamative approach to the management of river

and river basin (Sabater & Elosegi, 2014). Geographically, ecological element conditions such as land

use change cast the vividness of a river and its basin. As awareness of conserving the water resources

increased globally, integrated river basin management becomes one of the popular environmental

issues that include consorted use and management of land, water, and other natural resources, as

well as activities in a river basin shall be modelled in order to access the sustainability of the river basin

(Johnston et al., 2017).

b. RESEARCH PROBLEM

The Johor River is the main river of Johor State in southern Peninsular Malaysia. It is an

important source of freshwater supply, not only for Johor State but also for Singapore. The Johor River

Basin (JRB) is dominated by natural forest in the northern part, while large areas of oil palm and rubber

plantation cover the southern part. In the 1970s, huge forest areas in the JRB were cleared following

the land development projects by the Federal Land Development Authority (FELDA) and the South

East Johore Development Authority (KEJORA) land development programmes. In 1990, the Public

Utility Board (PUB) of Singapore built the Linggiu Dam on the upper reaches of Johor River under the

second water agreement.

Here we going to study the numbers of economy that been carried out in Johor River Basin to

know well that how useful is the river Basin along the Johor state and also how it helps in the

development of economics of Johor State since year 1990. The increasing water demand for Johor

3
Bahru and burgeoning townships nearby in the near future requires immediate measures to look

beyond conventional approaches in planning feasible source work development within the Johor river

basin.

FIGURE 2: LOCATION OF JOHOR RIVER BASIN

Thus, we can see that these major streams in Johor river basin do covers a big land of

the state where the economical activities are way too possible and happens all along the river stream

that contributes to the society and the state itself for the economical growth of the state.

c. Objectives

From this case study, as we see that the Johor River Basin do have a wide network within the

state and it contributes to the economic of the state in a numeric percentage. From this case study

we have two main objectives to been derived later as along this study which are to find out what are

the number of economical activities that been carried out along this Johor river Basin since year 1990.

We choose the year 1990 till date today to see that how that economical activities being rises from

time to time in the basin. As we know that these economical activities are actually common but how

it affects the economic of the state? That is how we going to see this statement.

4
 Our second objective is to find out how these economical activities near the Johor River Basin

improves or contributes to the people and the state. From this, we will know that rivers are also

important part in our life as it provides a lot of benefits along with the income of the society itself.

d. CASE STUDIES

The case studies about the economy along the Johor River Basin were very few as we search

along the internet. With that we made to find some of useful case studies that seems related to the

title of this assignment. The economy around the Johor River Basin, although it is not so clear and

obvious still we able to understand that how much beneficial do that streams that it contributes to a

kind of economic along with the stream and state.

We found out one study by H.H.Heng from Associate Director, SMHB Sdn Bhd. , W,F. Pan and

F.L.Siaw from Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, SEGi University and C.P.Hii from

Jurutera Adda Sdn Bhd regarding the “COASTAL AND ESTUARY RESERVOIR: CASE STUDIES FOR JOHOR

RIVER BASIN” and found out about the Linggui Dam that actually is a part of Johor River Basin. The

Johor River basin comprises a catchment area of about 2700 km2 that drains southward to the Straits

of Johor. The northern headwater region rises up to the northeast toward the township of Keluang.

The upper region of Blument Mountain Range forms the basin boundary to the Endau River basin in

the northeast direction. At the upper headwater range two major tributaries, the Sayong and Linggiu

Rivers, are located to the west and east respectively. Both tributaries join downstream near Bandar

Tenggara before meandering southeast toward the Straits of Johor. Major tributaries, such as Lebam,

Layang, Ulu Tiram, Sayong, Linggiu, Seluyut, etc. contribute flows to the basin outlet at the estuary

near Tanjung Langat. Less than 1 km southward lies the international boundary demarcation line with

Singapore near Tekong Island. There are currently four (4) reservoir systems in the Johor River basin:

(i) Linggiu dam; (ii) Lebam dam; (iii) upper and lower Layang dams; and (iv) Seluyut dam.

5
 i) LINGGUI DAM

The existing Linggiu dam (CA= 208 km2 ) was built in the middle of 1990’s to augment low

flow regimes at the downstream Johor River Water Works (JRWW: 1157 Mld capacity) by PUB

Singapore and Malaysia Water Department in an international agreement scheme (Ewing and

Domondon, 2016). The upstream of the reservoir catchment has a rugged terrain and topography with

sharp crest and steeper slopes. The area is above 100 m LSD with the higher mountain ranges reaching

about 440 m LSD next to the Endau river basin in the north. The reservoir storage A low main dam

with a full supply level (FSL) of 51 m LSD was constructed across a wider river valley on the main stem

of Linggiu River. Four (4) saddle dams were also constructed concurrently on the left abutments of the

main dam. The upland catchment is a designated water catchment area and thus remains mostly

untouched by the incessant expansions of oil palm plantations. It is predominantly covered by pristine

primary forest. As such the threat of soil erosion and subsequent reservoir sedimentation that plague

most of the existing reservoir schemes is minimal.

This dam actually contributes water not only to the residents of Johore but also to the

residents in Singapore. Singapore is to pay RM0.03 (S$0.01) for every 1,000 gallons of water supplied

under the two agreements. The Linggiu Reservoir and the JRWW are located near Kota Tinggi in

eastern Johor and are managed by Singapore’s Public Utilities Board (PUB). The reservoir was created

by building a dam across a tributary of the Johor River, as agreed under a supplementary agreement

signed in 1990, and has been in operation since January 1995. Raw water drawn from the reservoir is

channelled to the three water treatment plants that make up the JRWW.

The Iskandar Development Region (now named Iskandar Malaysia) was launched in

Johor in November 2006 as a special zone covering 2,217 sq km, roughly three times the size of

Singapore. The zone focuses on the industrial and service sectors, and seeks to capitalise on its

synergies with Singapore to create an integrated economic hub. Between 2006 and 2013, it registered

cumulative committed investments totalling RM111.37 billion, of which 40.2 per cent has been

6
realised. Johor’s population is projected to grow to as much as five million in 2030, doubling water

demand. This, along with pollution, is expected to strain Johor’s export commitments to Singapore.

Discharge from sewage treatment plants, agro-based factories, livestock farming, estate agriculture

and domestic sewage all affect the waters of Johor.

In 2008, 14 out of 21 rivers in the Iskandar Malaysia zone had moderate pollution levels while

five rivers in the Tebrau catchment exhibited more serious pollution. One river in the Pasir Gudang

catchment experienced severe pollution caused by industrial and development activities. As pollution

has worsened, the cost of water treatment has gone up, and industrial and transportation growth in

bustling southern Johor are further exacerbating these threats. The results of dry-season water

stresses are becoming progressively apparent.

FIGURE 3: An area near the Linggiu Reservoir, taken on April 19, 2016.

7
 The Linggiu Reservoir, which has the capacity to supply half of Singapore’s daily demand, was

just 31 per cent full by mid-2016, compared to 80 per cent at the start of the year. Malaysia receives

the bulk of its rainfall between December and March, and 97 per cent of the country’s needs are met

by rain-fed surface water. Johor is no exception and in 2010, more than 500,000 people in the districts

of Batu Pahat and Kluang were allowed a supply of water for only 12 hours a day, or 24 hours of

alternating water supply. The state government also undertook cloud seeding in an effort to increase

water levels, to little avail.

TABLE 2: WATER SUPPLY FROM LINGGUI DAM

The dry conditions of 2015-2016 have revealed still greater threats to Johor’s water sources.

In August and September 2015, Singapore agreed to transfer 22mld to Johor Bakaj (the Johor Water

Regulating Body) following low water levels at the Sungai Layang Dam and the Linggui Reservoir. The

Linggiu Reservoir, which has the capacity to supply half of Singapore’s daily demand, was just 31 per

cent full by mid-2016, compared with 80 per cent at the start of the year. Singapore’s Minister of

Environment and Water Resources Masagos Zulkifli confirmed that the Republic has asked Malaysian

water authorities to top up the reservoir. In June and July alone, Johor Bakaj twice requested

additional supplies of water from PUB Singapore, citing supply system shutdowns due to pollution in

the Johor River.

8
 ii) LEBAM DAM

Lebam dam (CA= 20 km2 ) is located on the main stem of Lebam River in the upper headwater

region of the river basin. It is located in the southeast tip of the State of Johor. It drains 20 km2 at the

dam catchment. The dam was originally constructed in 1979 as a 15 m high zoned earthfill

embankment with a slanted clay core to facilitate future raising. Sheet pile cut off was installed

throughout the alluvial layer so that the seepage could be further prolonged. In the 1990’s, the dam

was raised by 2.5 m to increase the storage to 13.8 MCM from the original 3.3 MCM. The dam raising

was originally to receive excess runoff by pump storage scheme in the neighboring Papan river basin.

However, this was not carried out until recently when the 2015-2016 El Nino event almost drew the

reservoir down to its dead storage zone.

FIGURE 4: The Sungai Lebam Dam in Johor in 2016. The dam currently has enough water to last

residents for about 70 days.

9
 This river actually contributes the residents nearby for their daily consumes such as fishing

and provides sufficient amount of supplies to the locals in the early 2000’s until the el nino phenomena

came in year 2015. The dam started to decrease in the number of water and gives low supplies for the

locals. Now, the economical activities nearby this river and dam had been traced out due to climate

changes and so on.

iii) LAYANG DAM

A 20-m high earth fill dam (known as upper Layang dam, CA= 31 km2 ) has been constructed

across the upper Layang River in the earlier 1980’s. The purpose was to provide a storage capacity of

about 45 MCM but the arrangement of the ancillary drawoff facility only can draw up to 26 MCM. This

was not considered a major operating issue as the bottom outlet can be used to release downstream

and in turn the raw waters can then be pumped to the water treatment plant formerly known as WTP.

Associated facilities such as pumps and pipelines/penstocks were provided to deliver raw waters from

the dam directly to the WTP immediately downstream. On the other hand to capture the excess runoff

of the residual catchment, a 700-m long and 8-m high earth bund (known as lower Layang dam CA=

25 km2) was also constructed at the same period of time with a residual area below the upper Layang

dam. The bund overlaid a thick layer of marine clay formation at the river mouth near the confluence.

Doing so added about 15 MCM to the overall storage capacity. During an upgrading exercise in the

early 1990’s, the upper Layang dam (CA= 31 km2) was equipped with HYDROPLUS fusegate system to

store excess runoff during rainy seasons. By increasing the height by 1 m, an additional 5 MCM could

be stored behind the labyrinth spillway structure. The system yields of both upper and lower Layang

scheme can provide about 143 Mld of direct raw waters from the reservoirs to the WTP. An additional

175 Mld direct transfer from the Johor River scheme upstream of JRWW intake further increased the

reliable yield to 318 Mld.

10
 FIGURE 5 : LAYANG DAM AIR VIEW

Nearby this dam actually got many oil palm plantation that way much consumes this water

supplies for the growths of the plantation. This economy is actually helps the growth of the states but

here also have illegal plantation that pollutes the water resources due to the excessive pesticides that

been used by the farmers nearby. taps ran dry in some 35,000 households for six days after high

amounts of ammonia were detected in the Muar river. Last year alone there were nine major pollution

cases in the state resulting in water disruption to thousands of households and losses for industries.

During the same period, three companies including two palm oil mills and a sand mining company

were fined a total of RM300,000.

iv) SELUYUT DAM

Seluyut River is one of the major middle reach tributaries of Johor River. It drains about 110

km2 at the confluence of the Johor and Seluyut rivers. An earthfill dam was recently constructed to

provide sole industrial water supply to Pegerang Industrial and Petrochemical Complex (PIPC) in the

southern tip of the east coastal region of Johor. The dam drains about half of the river basin toward

Johor River. The water supply scheme encompasses two phases with a total capacity of 520 Mld.

11
 The scheme transfers major bulks of unregulated runoff from the neighboring Sedili. The dam

operation is a pump storage mode such that higher yield could be accomplished by a regulating and

direct supply mode of operation.

FIGURE 6: PENGERANG INDUSTRIAL AND PETROCHEMICAL COMPLEX

The zoned earth fill dam (CA= 56 km2 ) is located near a 90° bend of Seluyut River about 2.5

km upstream from Kota Tinggi – Rengit River (Federal Road 92) road at the boundary of oil palm

plantations and forest reserve. The valley at the dam site is about 100 m wide and the flat plain is

located mainly at the left bank. The upstream of the right abutment and other areas are primarily

made up of forest cover. The left abutment up to some distance upstream is covered by small to

medium scale oil palm plantations. Seluyut dam (CA= 56 km2 ) is a clay core zoned earthfill

embankment of 26 m in height, with a crest length of about 100 m built across a narrow valley in the

upper river catchment. The Full Supply Level (FSL) and Embankment Crest Level (ECL) are 26.0 m LSD

and 30.0 m LSD respectively. The spillway is a chute channel type of 40 m wide and tapering to 20 m

further downslope. The 29 corresponding gross storage and inundated surface area at FSL are 72.86

MCM and 9.9 km2 respectively.

12
 In conclusion, this new paradigmatic shift of the reservoir storage location from the

headwaters to the lower estuary/coastal interfaces can equally serve the purpose of harnessing

sufficient yield to meet the future demand of Johor Bahru and vicinity. The limits of development that

can be deduced for both Lebam and Johor reservoir barrage are at 15 MCM and 60 MCM respectively.

These correspond to about 174 Mld and 918 Mld. The number of economical activities near these

Johor basins also can be seen that we will analyze in the next segment of study analyze.

e) ANALYSING OF CASE STUDIES

In the last segment we had knew some of the economical activities that had been carried out

in the four main streams of Johor River Basin. Firstly the Linggui Dam, it contributes water to Singapore

and in return get paid from the Singapore Government in millions for the supplies. Johor owns the

Linggiu Dam, but Singapore paid more than S$300 million for its construction and operational costs,

as well as compensation for the land used for the Linggiu Reservoir project, the potential loss of

revenue from logging activities, and as one-time payment for the lease of that land for the remaining

tenure of the 1962 Water Agreement. This is a source of income for the state as the payment done in

Singapore currency which is three times higher than Malaysian currency. So this source contributes to

the financial of the state than later will be used for the development of the state itself in urban and

rural projects.

Nextly, we will see about the Lebam river, that used to give good supplies such as proteins to

the locals. Fishing activities used to be common economical activities also the plantation nearby the

river side used to be very familiar with the residents until year 2015 where the climate changes occur

drastically that known as El-Nino. This made a huge impact where the dam started to fall in water level

and end up supplies low amount of water to the residents. These economical activities nearby this

dam is more to individual and society that gives benefits to peoples daily food needs and so on before

this El-Nino occurs.

13
 Then, we will see about the Layang river. Water from this dam being raw supplied to the water

treatment plant of the Syarikat Air Johor (SAJ RANHILLS) for the consumers daily need. This dam plays

an important economical role where being the important water supplier for the people in the state.

Economically, the people consumes the water with the affordable charges monthly that actually

contributes to the economic of the states too. Ever then less, still the illegal economy such as sand

minings and oil palm plantation also used to be known and it actually gives a huge impact on the

water pollution of Sungai Layang.

Lastly, we will see about the Rengit river and Seluyut dam. This is a very important river

because it contributes major economy to the state. This is because this dam being handled by the oil

and gas company such as PETRONAS for the industrial activities. Also this river supplies water for the

huge oil palm plantations that gives a lot of incomes in billions for the state.

In conclusion, we can analyse that this river waters mostly used for plantation, industrial

works and daily consumptions that gives many benefits to many parties economically also politically.

These economics along Johor river basins are just little a few that we got from the case studies but

when we see later in real field view, there will be even more economical activities to be found.

14
REFERENCES

1. BAKAJ (2016). Johor Water Resources Study 2010-2060. BAKAJ (Water Regulating Authority, ),
Government of Johor, Malaysia.
2. Brandt, MJ., KM. Johnson, AJ. Elphinston, and DD. Ratnayaka (2016). Twort’s Water Supply.
7th edition, Elsevier, Netherland, (2016).
3. DID (2000). Integrated River Water Management Manual for Malaysia. Department of
Irrigation and Drainage, Ministry of Agriculture, Malaysia.
4. Johnston, J. M., Barber, M. C., Wolfe, K., Galvin, M., Cyterski, M., & Parmar, R. (2017). An
Integrated Ecological Modeling System for Assessing Impacts of Multiple Stressors on Stream
and Riverine Ecosystem Services within River Basins. Ecological Modelling, 354, 104-114.
5. Ho SC (1996). Vision 2020: Towards an environmental sound and sustainable development of
freshwater resources in Malaysia. Geosciences Journal, 40(1): 73-84.
6. Kia MB, Pirasteh S, Pradhan B, Mahmud AR, Sulaiman WAR, and Moradi A (2012). An
artificial neural network model for flood simulation using GIS Johor River Basin, Malaysia.
Environmental Earth Sciences, 67(1): 251-264.
7. Sabater, S., & Elosegi, A. (2014). Balancing Conservation Needs with Users of River
Ecosystems. Acta Biol. Colomb, 19(1), 3-10.
8. SAJ (1994). Study on Comprehensive Water Resources Planning and Development in the State
of Johor, Final Report, Economic Planning Unit, Government of Malaysia.

15