Published on: Friday, March 20, 2009 |
Tenom: Indiscriminate land clearing by farmers is the likely cause of the recent flash floods and not logging activities carried out in the Crocker Range area in the 90s.
A Forestry Department spokesman, who declined to be identified, claimed on Thursday that these farmers' actions resulted in soil erosion and mudflows to nearby rivers, clogging them.
He further claimed that these farmers could be seen carrying out their activities along the Crocker Range from Tenom to Keningau.
However, a resident of Kg Naluyan, S.K. Lo, 84, who claimed to have witnessed four floods in a matter of months blamed them on the drainage system which he said was no longer relevant.
"This sort of thing never happened in Tenom 20 years ago. But today global warming caused by wanton logging and levelling of hills, not to mention dredging along rivers all contributed to our misery," Lo said.
Meanwhile, police on Monday ordered occupants of an apartment block belonging to the district hospital to vacate the residence in the face of an imminent landslide coming from the hill near Hotel Perkasa.
District officer Faimin Kamin could not be contacted for his comments, as he was outstation while Hospital Director Dr Ferous Mohd Alias is on leave.
