River degradation and loss of ecosystem services due to pollution and deforestation poses a great challenge for a holistic and sustainable river basin management. In Malaysia, about two third of its rivers are categorized as slightly polluted or polluted and this has led to the loss of ecosystem services in many of its river basins, notably in the rapidly developed Langat River Basin. The general historic legal responses to pollution control like water quality standards and gazettal of protected areas seems to rectify the problem as it occurs but is unsustainable. In other parts of the world, there has been a rise in alternative framings of river basin management like the Ecosystem Services Approach (ESA), integrated river basin management (IRBM), catchment based and stakeholder led river management; and these are seen as one way forward for sustainable basin management. The aim of this paper is to explore whether such framings can be implemented in Malaysia based on the current legal and federalism framework. It identifies the major causes and drivers of the polluted and poor state of Langat River and its tributaries and how might an alternative approach improve the situation. Towards this end, a comparative analysis is made with the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) and its implementation in the Tweed UNESCO HELP basin. Particularly, it explores the application of the subsidiarity principle that allows decision making to be made by agencies closest to the problem within the basin. It concludes that redefining the role of levels of government in IRBM and stakeholder engagement can speed up the process of reframing the Langat IRBM to reduce river pollution and enhance the ecosystem services of the basin.

由于污染和森林砍伐造成的河流退化和生态系统服务的丧失对流域的整体和可持续管理提出了巨大的挑战。在马来西亚，大约三分之二的河流被归为轻度污染或被污染，这导致其许多流域，特别是快速发展的兰加特河流域的生态系统服务丧失。关于污染控制的一般历史性法律对策，例如水质标准和保护区宪报，似乎可以纠正该问题，但这种问题是不可持续的。在世界其他地区，流域管理的其他框架也有所增加，例如生态系统服务方法（ESA），流域综合管理（IRBM），基于集水区和利益相关者主导的河流管理；这些被视为实现流域可持续管理的一种方式。本文的目的是根据目前的法律和联邦制框架，探讨是否可以在马来西亚实施这种框架。它确定了兰加特河及其支流污染和贫困状态的主要原因和驱动因素，以及替代方法如何改善这种状况。为此，对欧盟水框架指令（WFD）及其在特威德联合国教科文组织帮助盆地的实施情况进行了比较分析。特别是，它探讨了辅助原则的应用，该原则允许最接近流域内问题的机构做出决策。