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Integrated Langat River Basin Management lacks appropriate leadership of appropriate agency due to the conflict among jurisdictions since Langat River drains through three different constituency. Meanwhile, pollution of the river and frequent shutdown incidents of water treatment plants in the basin are evident due to both point and non-point sources of pollutions. Moreover, the statistically significant trend of annual rainfall (2005-2016) and temperature (2005-2016) in the basin clearly indicates the impact of climate change because of uncertain rainfall and temperature patterns. Flood incidents (2004-2016) within the basin in comparison with the rainfall and temperature also indicate short duration heavy rainfall at local level to enhance the pollution of the river. Contrary, the review of literature and informal interviews with the public, private and civil sectors highlight the attitude problem of the stakeholders along lack of leadership of LUAS in managing the river and drinking water in the basin. Therefore, the ‘proactive’ leadership of Local Authority under the Local Government Act 1976 could be successful to coordinate with stakeholders through multi stakeholders’ platform and several stages of quality control and quality assurance to manage water resources. The study suggests a new Langat Basin Management Authority under the Local Authority leadership as well as a Two-Layer water filtration technology in basin management. Henceforth, implementing the recommendations will facilitate Malaysia to achieve SDGs 2030 and National Transformation 2050 within the stipulated timeframe.

Ecohydrology focuses on ecological processes within the hydrological cycle. It works under the assumption that an anthropogenically modified catchment or river basin can reverse environmental degradation and enhance the ecosystem service through improved climate cycle, controls erosion, soil formation, water purification, waste treatment and food production. Improved ecosystem services within the hydrological cycle can also serves human’s cultural and spiritual aspect as well as in the production of scientific knowledge. There has been call for countries to regulate the use of ecosystem as they are being degraded faster than they can recover. In 2001, the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) initiated the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA) to assess the consequences of ecosystem change for human well-being. It finds that 60% of 24 ecosystem services examined such as clean water, food, forest products, flood control and provision of natural resources has been badly degraded due to unsustainable development. It is submitted that law can play a role in ensuring preservation of a healthy ecohydrology as a tool used by respective authorities to achieve sustainable development and prevent excessive use of natural resources. This requires a new philosophy on the role of law in ecohydrological protection since environmental legislations fail to punish human activities that had either directly or indirectly disrupt the normal hydrological cycle. An analysis on earth jurisprudence, environmental ethics, equity and justice may elucidate the need to preserve a heathy ecohydrology as its own and other human’s right.

Federalism refers to an agreement between several states which agree to be united as a nation state but with shared administrative responsibility. Under the dual federalism theory, the federal and the state governments are co-equals with specific powers granted by the constitution. In contrast, cooperative federalism denotes that although the federal government is supreme over the states, both acts cooperatively to solve common problem. Malaysia practices dual federalism as legislative powers of the federal and state governments are separated in the Federal Constitution. Rather than fostering cooperation, dual federalism in Malaysia has created tension between different levels of governments in the water sector as highlighted in the Selangor water woes. This paper evaluates issues arising in the Malaysian water sector from the federalism perspectives. Towards this end, doctrinal analysis on relevant laws and commentaries are made to appreciate the meaning of federalism and different approaches towards federalism. The paper concludes that different approaches towards federal-state relation can assist in improving the water sector and solve water conflict between different levels of governments in Malaysia.