COULD THIS BE DUE TO RIVER POLLUTION?

I strongly believed that the death fishes that found floating in Sungai Tiau Mujong Kapit was caused by river pollution. Many of the fishes are protected species (Empurau and Semah). If no effort to stop our forest destruction there will be no more of these special fish in future.

I urge the relevant authority to look after this problem seriously. Stop all the forest destruction activities, that activity only benefit those intruder but not the people.

Stop giving the concession to those intruders! That land should be belonged to the indegenous people.

LANGRIMBA

DELICIOUS IKAN EMPURAU RM300 PER KILO

Oleh Churchill Edward

KUCHING: An investigation team with better equipment will be sent to probe the cause of death of fishes found floating in Sungai Tiau in Munjong, Kapit.

This assurance came from State Natural Resources and Environmental Board (NREB) yesterday.

Yesterday its Environmental Quality Controller Dr Penguang Manggil told The Borneo Post that this time around they just have to probe deeper into the matter.

“At this point of time, I cannot tell what has happened. At the same time, we couldn’t pin-point the cause. We will have to send a probe team over there (Sungai Tiau, a tributary of Sungai Baleh) but they will be better equipped this time around,” he said.

He revealed that the last time, his team of investigators could not arrive at a conclusion over their findings on the new year occurrence of dead fishes floating in Sungai Rajang between Long Murum in upper Belaga and Kapit.

“Our men then (at Belaga), came only three days after the occurrence. By that time it was difficult for them to determine the cause,” he said.

Penguang said these two cases are similar to one several years ago when a river overflowed, a process he described as “over topping”.

thesundaypost reported that residents along Sungai Tiau had said on Jan 10 that they saw dead fishes swept away by strong currents.

Apart from the strong current, the water level was also relatively high, said Tuai Rumah Nisin Bunyau.

Another witness Dinggai Geramong from Rumah Bangkong also in Mujong reported that the dead fishes included buris, baung, adong, keli, empurau, semah, tengkadak and toman apart from prawns.

From Jan 14 and 17, two enforcement and licensing officers from the Agriculture Ministry in Kuching - Zakri Padil and Chong Ted Kin - as well as several other staff were at the scene to investigate. They brought some of the fishes to Kuching.

In the Belaga case, the “over-topping” of the river include siltation when incidence of dead fishes is common, Penguang said yesterday.

However, he could not say whether the fishes died as a result of suffocation or other causes.

In that incident, some villagers were quick to blame logging ponds which discharged chemicals that contaminated the river.

But the authority said it was too early to tell as investigation was still ongoing.

The only thing for certain now was that nobody wanted to eat the fish there.

When contacted several days after the (Belaga) incident, Baleh assemblyman Dato Sri Dr James Masing, who is also Land Development Minister, advised people not to eat or buy the fish there.

According to him, it was hard to believe that the fish had died as a result of the muddy water since it had been there for “a long time.”