Fatimah (second right) steals a glance at the camera during the ‘gotong’royong’ to clear overgrowing water hyacinth bunches from Oya River.
DALAT: The Ministry of Transport (MoT) Sarawak will cooperate with the Department of Irrigation and Drainage (DID) and Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) in conducting a comprehensive study into the ‘gondok air’ (water hyacinth) problem affecting Oya River here.
In stating this, Minister of Welfare, Community Wellbeing, Women, Family and Childhood Development Dato Sri Fatimah Abdullah expressed her hope for the collaboration to be able to come up with a long-term solution to curb the overgrowth of this plant in the river.
According to her, the decision to set up the partnership between MoT Sarawak, DID Sarawak and Unimas was made following the two meetings held previously at the Dalat District Office, which engaged officials from the three collaborators, as well as those from Sarawak Rivers Board (SRB) Mukah Division, the divisional engineer and representatives of several other related agencies.
“The study will include the impact on the local economy and environment.
“DID Mukah will consider allocating large long-term budget, meant for clearing the overgrown water hyacinth plant in Batang (River) Oya, and also in other affected rivers in the future,” said Fatimah, who is Dalat assemblywoman, when met during a ‘gotong-royong’ (work party) programme at Oya River yesterday.
She acknowledged that the uncontrolled growth of water hyacinth posed a number of problems such as restricting the river flow and causing the water to become stagnant; making it difficult for fishermen and boatmen to manoeuvre their boats, especially the ones with motor engines, due to entanglement; clogging the drains and other waterways which, in turn, could cause floods; and turning Oya River into a hideout for crocodiles.
In addition, Fatimah said a working committee – headed by the district officer – had been established for the purpose of addressing this ‘water hyacinth problem’.
For the short-term solution, she said the DID would allocate RM20,000 for clearing Oya River from overgrowing water hyacinth by using amphibious machinery or barges.
She also said SRB Mukah would allocate RM10,000 for a ‘gotong-royong’ programme to clear the overgrowth around the jetty areas or the affected villages.
“The Mukah Resident’s Office would also use the available funds to assist in the clearing works,” she added.
According to her, the areas affected by the overgrowing water hyacinth span 38km – from Medong to Kuala Batang Oya.
“Using the existing allocations, the clearing works could only cover between 500m and 600m of areas.
“The payment rate for the cleaning works is based on the rate set by DID Sarawak,” she said.
The minister also said the all community leaders would hold meetings at their respective villages to explain to their charges the proposed action by the government’s departments and agencies to address this problem.
“The working committee would then make plans and actions based on the outcomes of the meeting that each involved village has called.
“This is to ensure that the clearing works to be carried out would receive the support and cooperation from the local community,” she said.
Fatimah also said the district officer would present to her the action plan meant towards resolving the problem, as per decided from the last meeting.
Meanwhile, 400 people from 19 local villages took part in the ‘gotong-royong’ yesterday.
Later, Fatimah presented allocations amounting to RM831,000 from her Minor Rural Project (MRP) grant to 27 organisations in her constituency.
Separately, the minister said on Nov 4, a meeting on MRP-Housing Repair Programme for the Poor Sarawak (PPRMS) was held, with the purpose of assessing and selecting the eligible recipients from each village in Dalat.
The programme, covering repair and rebuilding works on all housing structures including toilets and bathrooms, would involve total cost of between RM5,000 and RM15,000 for each house, she added.
“During the MRP-PPRMS meeting, 42 houses had been selected and approved for renovation – 40 of which are directly under MRP-PPRMS, while the other two are under the Dalat Constituency Special Project (State Development Office),” said Fatimah.
The minister said under the MRP-PPRMS, 174 houses had undergone renovations between 2018 and last year, involving a total cost of RM1.9 million.
The post Joint study meant to tackle water hyacinth overgrowth appeared first on Borneo Post Online.