Published on: Tuesday, February 07, 2006 |
Kota Kinabalu: The Sabah Anglers Association (SAA) urged the Government to immediately look into the pollution that is causing thousands of aquatic life in the Segama River, including exotic fish, to die.
Its President Datuk Wilfred Lingham said he believed the fish died due to pollution from the effluents discharged by palm oil mills operating near the river.
"Through my intimate knowledge of Segama River, it is very deep and big. So for tuba (poison to catch fish) to kill so many fish is totally out of the question. I can pinpoint the cause to the palm oil mills," he said here.
Wilfred was commenting on a Daily Express report that thousands of freshwater fish were found floating on the river late last month, including kanai, patin sungai, baung, lampam, limpata, ketutu, tapah, and belian, among others.
Due to the size of the river, he believed the amount of pollution to be able to cause such destruction must be high.
"It did not happen overnight. It must have been for a long time and now we have reached the stage where the river is so polluted©nd this is not happening only in Segama River but in others as well such as Silabukan, Sabahan among others," he said.
He said the SAA was sad to learn about the dead fishes and how the riverine folk there have had their livelihood affected.
According to him, the dead kanai fish pictured in the Daily Express is known as tamaing (Lut Junidae species) in the west coast and that it is a highly nutritious fish.
"It is a fish that is very much sought after but we can hardly catch it in the West Coast now," he said, adding the people in the East Coast used to harvest even Udang Galah to be sold to the people.
Wilfred said he had been to parts of the area and that many palm oil mills were operating there. While some had oxidation ponds to detoxify the residue, some were found to be discharging the toxic waste into the river. In this respect, he said the government needs to look into the issue not only in the Segama River but other rivers throughout the State as well.
Meanwhile, the Lahad Datu Fisheries Officer Talip Hasan said the Environmental Conservation Department together with the Wildlife Department would be investigating the case by taking the water samples soon.
Talip said such incident had happened before but this was the most serious yet. He assured that investigations would be conducted immediately.
