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| The Ambual river |
KENINGAU: Some 2,000 villagers in Sook near here have voiced fears that an oil palm mill being built at Sunggala would pollute their only source of water supply – the Ambual river.
They are dead worried that waste from the mill when it is in commission may be discharged indiscriminately into the tributaries of the Ambual river.
The oil palm mill project is currently taking shape near the tributaries on the upper reaches of the Ambual River. Even now the water in the Ambual river would turn murky whenever it rains as earth from the project site is washed into its tributaries. A spokesman for the residents of Kampung Pantai Baru, Kampung Magatang and Kampung Ambual, Garius Pukin told New Sabah Times yesterday that the villagers depended on the Ambual river for their clean water as well as to irrigate some 471 acres of rice fields in Kampung Ambual and Magatang.
“And the residents of nearby Kampung Kasigui also depend on the river water for their freshwater fishponds,”he added. Garius, who is chairman of Kampung Ambual’s Gerakan Daya Wawasan and a Pensiangan Umno committee member, said he visited the construction site together with several villagers last year and found that the earthwork was the cause of the murky water of Ambual river. “We later informed the Sook sub-district office and several political leaders in Sook constituency but so far we have not received any feedback,” he quipped.
“While villagers have always been monitoring their river they have not been able to do anything about the oil palm mill other than complain to the relevant ministry or department as it belongs to a large corporation,” he added.
And, Garius also said that as construction of the mill has just started, there was still a chance to move it to another site. “If it is not moved, the government has to think of a way of supplying water to the villagers.
“We understand the mill would create job opportunities for the people in the Sook area but at the same time it could also affect the supply of water to the villagers,” he said.
Garius also urged the Department of Environment to send its personnel to the site and investigate the mill’s long-term impact on the villagers.
He said the villagers suspected that the department was probably not informed about the adverse environmental impact the mill would have on the villagers when it gave approval for its construction.
New Sabah Times
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