KUCHING: “Take care of our river,” says North Kuching City Hall (DBKU) mayor Datuk Abang Abdul Wahab Abang Julai.
Referring to the recent case of floating dead fish at the Waterfront, Abang Wahab stressed that the problem will always happen if we do not take part in taking care of the cleanliness of our river.
According to him, the recent problem may have arisen from environmental pollution and significant changes in temperature.
“When I first got into contact with the Natural Resources and Environmental Board (NREB), they told me that it could possibly be a kind of “shock” in the river condition,” he stated.
Asked to elaborate, he said: “Having both hot weather and rainfall back and forth means unbalanced changes in temperature. These changes may contribute to the imbalance system of environment in the aquatic ecosystem.
“I believe it is related to the current hot weather hitting Kuching as well as rain that brings so much water in the city’s drainage system that carries along with it various “God-knows-what” pollutants,” he told the New Sarawak Tribune when contacted recently.
Abang Wahab added that the city’s drainage system is still undergoing improvement.
He said once works to improve the drainage system are completed, city folk can expect to see less of this kind of incidents.
“We are also looking at the possibility of planting mangroves – the plants that could protect coastal areas from erosion, storm surge and tsunamis,” he declared.
