Erosion along beaches worsen

KUALA TERENGGANU: Beach erosion along a one kilometre stretch of the Tok Jembal shoreline, about 15km from here, has worsened.

Residents claimed it would not be long before it affects the costal road, an alternative route used by motorists from north Tereng­ganu to get to the Sultan Mahmud Airport and Gong Badak.

Vanishing shoreline: A child riding his bicycle dangerously close to the eroded Tok Jembal shoreline in Kuala Terengganu yesterday. Residents fear the erosion might force them to move their homes away from the beachfront areas.

The Star discovered that a similar erosion also occurred along Teluk Ketapang beachfront, which is less than two-kilometre from Tok Jembal.

Apart from the damaged road, several tourist infrastructures were also destroyed in both the locations due to deterioration of soil along these shorelines.

Dozens of palm trees that were planted for beautification purpose by local authority were also found uprooted due to the earth condition.

Villager Adnan Che Yah, 53, said the situation worsened during the recent monsoon season.

“We expect the erosion to eat-up more beach front areas. All of us are praying that our homes would not be affected,” he said when met here yesterday.

Fisherman Rahmad Wakaf, 61, said boats are unable to get close to the beachfront due to the erosion.

State Industrial, Commerce and Environ­ment committee chairman Toh Chin Yaw said the State Drainage and Irrigation Department would monitor the situation.

“Remedial plans to prevent further erosion has been outlined by the department and presently the officers are monitoring the site and would activate preventive measures once the need arise,” he said.

1,300 park offenders held

BESUT: More than 1,300 people have been arrested in the country since 2003 for violating marine park conservation laws.

Marine Park Department director-general Abd Jamal Mydin said continuous enforcement resulted in fines totalling RM1mil, along with the arrests of 1,335 offenders.

He said since 2003 until June this year, Pahang recorded 125 violations and RM254,980 in fines, followed by Kedah (82, RM254,850), Johor (58, RM161,350) and Terengganu (53, RM249,800).

Speaking after the opening of the Besut Marine Park Depart­ment office in Seberang Kastam, Kuala Besut, near here recently, Abd Jamal said enforcement activities were being carried out intensively at marine parks.

He said that only 42 out of 800 islands in Malaysia had been gazetted as marine parks, adding that the department would continue to encourage state governments to consider declaring more marine parks.

He also thanked environmentalists for their pivotal efforts to safeguard the marine parks and create public awareness.

Pulau Bidong to be turned into maritime research centre

KUALA TERENGGANU: Pulau Bidong, once home to a Vietnamese refugee camp, will be turned into a maritime research centre by Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (UMT).

UMT vice-chancellor Prof Dr Aziz Deraman said the abundance of flora and fauna found at the island was an appropriate base for the university to conduct research.

He said UMT’s rehabilitation effort to revive the green lung areas on the island had been successful.

“We have been carrying out continuous work to revive the island’s greenery, with the expertise of our horticulturists,” he said.

Prof Aziz said university officials had been assigned to identify and tag the species of trees on the island.

“Once the assignment is completed, Pulau Bidong will be ready to be our research base as well as a place to organise study tours,” he added.

Prof Aziz said the university had allocated RM3mil for the setting up of basic infrastructure facilities.

This, he said included the construction of jetty and laboratories at the island.

The university has outlined the necessary measures to protect the environment during construction work.

Meanwhile, Prof Aziz said UMT was also in the midst of renovating its campus facilities to meet the requirements of the expanding student enrolment.

Apart from this, he added that the university was also completing other facilities and building several new faculties, at the cost of RM340mil.

The new buildings under construction are for the agro-technology and food science faculty, maritime and marine science faculty, aquaculture institute, oceanography institute and marine biotechnology institute

'Sermons elevate concerns'

KUALA TERENGGANU: In November last year, 482 imams throughout Terengganu preached about turtle conservation at the Friday sermon in a bid to raise awareness of the species.
The one-off sermon follows the efforts by the Ma'Daerah Heritage Community Association (Mekar) and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Malaysia to use mosques as a medium to spread the message of saving the turtles.

Formed in 2004, Mekar is a local community group aimed at raising awareness on turtle conservation.

The text for the sermon was peppered with help from the Institute of Islamic Understanding Malaysia.

A report by the WWF Malaysia stated that Islamic sermons could elevate public concerns on issues of conservation.
The report also said since Friday prayers were mandatory for Muslim men, it appears worthwhile to replicate such events in other predominantly Muslim areas with different conservation contexts, such as human and wildlife conflicts and poaching hotspots.

The report was based on questionnaires handed out to the congregation at the mosque statewide.

However, further studies are needed to establish if an increase in awareness translates to conservation actions.

Dead fish float on the once pristine Sungai Dura

By R.S.N. MURALI

KUALA TERENGGANU: Sungai Dura, a source of water for 800 villagers from Kampung Pueh, was contaminated by palm oil effluent a few days ago and is in danger of dying.

Dead fish and prawns are floating on the once crystal-clear waters now covered with a coat of sticky substance.

A sickening stench is pervasive.

Terengganu’s Department of Environment (DOE) director Rusli Che Husin said the river was polluted after a direct flow of effluent from the palm oil plant’s pipeline into the river in Hulu Terengganu, about 87km from here.

“We have sent a team of officers to monitor the water quality daily and send back the reports to the department here,” he said when contacted by The Star, Tuesday.

He said the situation was not critical but the water quality could deteriorate if the river was not urgently rehabilitated.

“We are doing our best to save the river as the leakage was considered unintentional as the plant was undergoing restoration work when the incident occurred a few days ago,” he said.

The department had questioned the mill’s owner and was investigating to see if punitive action needed to be taken against the polluter.

Kampung Pueh villager Azman Che Jusoh, 33, from said villagers had no choice but to turn to artesian wells for water.

“We hope the authorities do something about reviving the river before it is totally dead, he said. -Star

Marine life at Pulau Perhentian under threat from trash

KUALA TERENGGANU: Pulau Perhentian Besar and Kecil, the havens for marine life, are under threat environmentally due to poorly planned tourism development, ineffective sewage treatment and solid waste disposal.

The state government is worried that this could lead to severe damage to coral reefs found in abundance surrounding both islands.

State Commercial, Industry and Environment Committee chairman Toh Chin Yaw said the new chalets have compounded the problem as many of them did not have proper sewage and rubbish disposal systems.

“Some of these operators are taking the easy way out by diverting all types of wastes from their chalets direct into the sea,” he said in an interview yesterday.

Toh said during the peak season, mounds of garbage bags could also be seen around the islands, believed to have been left by these operators.

“They are blaming us for not centralising the sewage system and garbage collection without realising that it is too costly for the state government to do that.“We have commissioned a contractor to regularly collect the garbage from the islands to be disposed of on the mainland, but many of the operators are refusing to pay the maintenance fees and continued to indiscriminately throw their garbage into the sea,” he added.

Toh said the state government would build a sewage treatment plant on the islands if the operators were willing to pay the monthly maintenance fees.

However, he doubted that they would do so as at present, they were also unwilling to share part of their revenues to be utilised for the pollution control efforts as advocated by the state government.

“We are intensifying our environmental awareness programme, besides encouraging operators to improve their waste facilities.

“We will also rope in the relevant authorities to educate these operators on the importance of protecting the eco-system at these islands,” he added.-Star

30 Usahawan Telekomunikasi Dakwa Ditipu

KUALA TERENGGANU, 30 Mei (Bernama) -- Seramai 30 orang mendakwa mengalami kerugian berjumlah lebih RM2.5 juta setelah ditipu sebuah syarikat pengendali perkhidmatan telekomunikasi.

Wakil kumpulan itu, Khairul Nizam Ishak, 31, mendakwa mereka mengeluarkan modal antara RM80,000 hingga RM100,000 seorang untuk kos yuran penyertaan, bayaran peralatan, deposit dan kos penyewaan serta pengubahsuaian kedai.

"Maklumat mengenai pelancaran syarikat telekomunikasi ini pada awal tahun lepas telah disiarkan melalui media dengan dirasmikan orang kenamaan menyebabkan ramai yang berminat untuk menjadi ejen.

"Kami dikehendaki membayar yuran penyertaan sebanyak RM5,000 dan bayaran peralatan dan sistem sebanyak RM60,000. Namun sehingga kini masih ramai yang tidak mendapat barangan yang dijanjikan dan aplikasi jalur lebar yang didakwa hendak ditawarkan juga tidak ada," katanya.

Khairul mendakwa beliau bersama ejen lain telah berkali-kali menguhubungi pihak syarikat itu termasuk ketua pegawai eksekutifnya bagi mendapatkan penjelasan berhubung perkara itu, namun gagal.

Malah, katanya ibu pejabat syarikat itu di Kelana Jaya dan syarikat pencari ejen di Dungun juga ditutup menyebabkan beliau bersama enam lagi ejen dari Pulau Pinang, Kedah, Pahang dan Perlis membuat laporan polis hari ini di Ibu Pejabat Polis Daerah Kuala Terengganu.

Khairul berkata beliau sanggup berhenti kerja sebagai juruteknik dan mengeluarkan wang simpanannya selama lapan tahun untuk menjadi ejen syarikat itu dan kini beliau terpaksa menganggur selain menanggung kerugian.

Syarikat terbabit yang dilancarkan awal tahun lepas menyediakan beberapa perkhidmatan tambahan seperti perkhidmatan protokol internet telefoni, akses internet jalur lebar, pengurusan protokol internet, kemudahan rangkaian privasi maya dan perkhidmatan aplikasi maklumat komunikasi.

-- BERNAMA