Disputed area part of original plan: Firm
Published on: Friday, April 29, 2016
Pitas: The 1,000-acre mangrove area, which is the focus of a dispute between indigenous people and a prawn farm project, has always been part of the original plan for the Pitas Shrimp Park.Sunlight Inno Seafood Sdn Bhd Chief Executive Officer King Wong explained that it is not true that the company is looking to expand its operation but merely a continuation of the project."During the initial implementation of the project, the company decided that we need 3,300 acres in the more than 9,000 acres of land which is gazetted for fisheries activities.ADVERTISEMENT "Unfortunately, due to technical problems, only 2,300 acres were approved and the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report was approved," he said.In the meantime, King said the company's attempt to work on the 1,000 acres about two years ago was met with protest from the indigenous people who reported it to the authority.As a result, the company was slapped with a compound of RM30,000 for the offence, he said. It had since commenced a new EIA.King said there is a need to continue with the clearing of the 1,000 acres because such is the nature of project development where it is more cost-effective to develop all areas at one go instead of by phases.ADVERTISEMENT However, he is not in a rush to develop the area and is willing to wait until at least half of the project is up and running."All the 2,300 acres have been fully developed. We have dug 1,150 ponds but admittedly only nine are in operation, and there's a good reason for that.
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"You see, the farm has a problem with consistent and high-quality prawn fries supply, where at the moment we can only rely on one supplier."Due to the short supply of prawn fries, we are unable to fully operate. This is why we are also developing our own hatchery which would solve this problem once and for all," he said.King denied that the company is involved in land-grabbing as what was implied by a group of villagers who claimed that the mangroves are their NCR.He also dismissed suggestions that the consultant sent in to conduct a social survey for the purpose of the EIA report deliberately lied to the villagers with the intention of misleading them.On Wednesday, a group of 10 villagers held a press conference claiming that they are representing 2,500 villagers from six kampongs in Pitas who are aghast that the company is going to destroy the 1,000 acres of mangroves which they said are the only remaining mangroves in the area.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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King explained that in fact, the whole area has more than 10,000 acres of mangroves in the area, not including the one the company is going to develop."So it is not true that this is the only remaining mangroves," he said.