A/HRC/42/47/Add.2 A. Orang Asli indigenous peoples 26. While the Orang Asal indigenous peoples constitute the majority of the population in East Malaysia, in Peninsular Malaysia they are a minority, and are known as Orang Asli. The Special Rapporteur visited seven villages in the Gua Musang District of Kelantan where Temiar-Orang Asli people live. He was able to see how Orang Asli villages have been resettled and regrouped after being displaced by flooding and megaprojects, including logging, oil palm and rubber plantations, and dam construction, which implies the loss of their traditional lands, the majority of which are not officially protected. The Special Rapporteur heard from various interlocuters that, for Orang Asli, losing their lands means the destruction of their way of life, including the possibility to transmit rituals, beliefs, knowledge, and practices. During his short yet valuable time with the indigenous peoples, the Special Rapporteur saw that the rivers neighbouring each community were used for several different purposes, including as sources of water for washing and as places in lieu of toilets. 27. The Department of Orang Asli Development is a dedicated government agency responsible for ensuring “the administration, welfare and advancement of the aborigines” (Aboriginal Peoples Act 1954, art. 4). From the beginning of the Second Malaysia Plan to the Eleventh Malaysia Plan, the Ministry of Rural Development has constructed several water facilities in Orang Asli villages, with a target of 90 per cent coverage. According to the Ministry, at the time of the visit, 701 of the 853 Orang Asli settlements had been provided with a water supply. The efforts to address access to water for the indigenous peoples were illustrated by a representative of the Department of Orang Asli Development, who emphasized that there was no one-size-fits-all solution, based on the lessons learned and the identification of problems in implementing water systems. 28. The Special Rapporteur saw these problems in person when he visited the villages. Several water treatment facilities were installed at the entrance to the communities by the Ministry of Rural Development and were managed by the district office of the Department of Orang Asli Development. The facilities were based on sophisticated technology that required proper maintenance and operation, which was beyond the capacity of the villagers without adequate training. In addition to the inappropriateness of the level of technology, the facilities were not maintained and operated due to a problem described as “gaps in outsourcing contracts”. Additionally, a lack of maintenance was also observed in resettled and regrouped villages. In the villages of Lansat and Kuala Betis, in which several indigenous peoples have been regrouped and relocated, the villagers enjoyed adequate living conditions during the initial phase of the settlement, but as time passed, services such as water supply were not maintained, leaving them without proper access to water. 29. As the water systems are not functional, villagers often rely on gravity-fed water supply from streams in the mountains and water from the river. Residents are left to find water sources on their own. In the village of Peralong, 40 inhabitants who live in traditional houses rely on one water point that the population themselves have constructed using pipes that had been left behind by the logging companies nearby. These alternative water systems, constructed by the indigenous peoples and outside the purview of government regulation, do not guarantee an adequate level of water quality. In the village of Kelaik, in where there are 50 families, comprising about 200 people in total, the water treatment plant was provided by the Department of Orang Asli Development in 2010, although it has never worked. The community has relied on a small stream for drinking water and the river flowing next to the village for washing and cooking. One of the villagers explained that, when it rained, the villagers compared the water from the small stream and the river. Whichever was cleaner, they drink it. 30. In villages in which facilities provided by the Department of Orang Asli Development are operating, the water supply is intermittent and inadequate for the entire community. To compensate for the lack of a continuous supply of water, in the two villages of Podek and Angkek, a relatively large community of 42 households comprising 420 people, the villagers use the functional water treatment facility provided by the Department of Orang Asli Development, which works for only one or two hours a day, as a source of drinking water, whereas the water from the boreholes dug by the community themselves is 7