IT’S about a dying river in the middle of a city – heartbreak for the environmentalists and health conscious citizens. It’s where I and my mates used to swim in the 1950s. It was our swimming pool after school. In its present state, you wouldn’t even want to go near it, let alone jump in!
SAVE THE RIVER: Rubbish and debris are seen floating in the Tabuan.
We were under the impression that the Sarawak Rivers Board had something to do with rivers in general and that the Tabuan is a river, always has been, all this while. Now it doesn’t look like one; it’s water is greenish and smelly. And nobody seems to care about it.
One of the functions of the board is got take all lawful, necessary and reasonable, practicable measures to keep the rivers or ports clean and free of filth, rubbish or refuse’. True kah?
On Monday, we were told that the board allegedly refused to remove solid waste from the Tabuan because it is not their business’ (The Borneo Post – June 7).
Misquoted by the press? No denial so far.
We had hoped the Kuching South City Council (MBKS) would clean the Tabuan River by taking reasonable measures because it runs through its territory. Its Mayor was quoted as having known about the problem for some time but had said, ‘MBKS looks after land, not rivers’. (The Borneo Post – June 6).
Wrongly quoted by the reporter?
We had expected the Natural Resources and Environment Board (NREB) and the Department of Environment (DOE) to show concern publicly because this state of affairs concerns the health of the environment. No comment from either outfit, but some people have taken samples of the water for analysis.
An official from the Drainage and Irrigation Department (DID) did his best to educate the public that cleaning rivers “is not the main role of our department, but preventing floods is. Indeed, they de-silted the Tabuan in 2009 and prevented flooding.
On Tuesday, they reportedly sent five workers to clean part of the river near the Tabuan Dayak bridge, then left the rubbish on the bank of the river to be picked up by someone else. The flotsam was still there by Thursday.
All week we were waiting for some authority, any authority to act. Readers, we were wrong. We didn’t go by the book, they do, you see. But all of us, we and they, were missing the point: the point is that here is a good river to save and who ever saves it gets the credit. Why split hairs? If there is some grey area in terms of jurisdiction, use the grey matter.
A story
This situation reminds me of a story I chanced to see pasted on the wall of a doctor fs clinic sometime ago. I had forgotten the actual wording of it so I had to rush to the clinic again.
“This is the story about four people: Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody.
“There was an important job to be done and Everybody would do it.
“Anybody could have done it but Nobody did.
“Somebody got angry about that because it was Everybody’s job.
“Everybody thought Anybody could do it, but Nobody realised that Everybody wouldn’t do it.
“It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when actually Nobody had asked Anybody.”
Action at last
On this fine Sunday, a goodhearted cardiologist and some volunteers are plunging into this rubbish issue. Dr Tang Sie Hing and his Good Samaritans, in sanitary masks and rubber gloves, will be scooping debris from the foul water of Tabuan to save it from certain death. Tabuan needs a bypass.
This is an excellent effort, and the beginning of a campaign ‘Love Tabuan River’. Gee, I want to be part of that campaign, mate. But make no mistake – this is emergency treatment. The maintenance of the river and all rivers in Sarawak must be entrusted to relevant agencies, funded by the tax payers’ money.
The involvement of the residents along any river is crucial; a lot of rubbish is tossed into the water by them. In Kuching, other people also chuck rubbish over the bridges any time of day or night. I have seen a water bottle flying out of a car window and into the water off the Jalan Wan bridge, in broad daylight.
Enforcement
City Hall has its own regulations to govern refuse collection on land. It’s high time the cleaning of rivers within the city was added to the other functions of the Council. A few years ago, I heard about a penalty of RM500 for littering in Kuching.
Isn’t throwing rubbish into a river equivalent to littering? Catch the culprit, if you can. Enlist the service of Rela members in the area.
However, finger-pointing and passing the buck will not save the Tabuan and, for that matter, other rivers in the state. Strict enforcement of laws if any and rubbish disposal education may help save the rivers from muck – our highways for many more years to come.
Other rivers
Many other rivers and streams in Sarawak are also sick; they have been poisoned by us humans. They must also be saved by the very humans who poison them for fish, or for money from oil palm plantations – those poorly managed.
We have heard about villagers at Subak in Sibuti district complaining about skin problems. The source of the trouble is the dirty water from Sungai Nibong, awash with germs from the Sibuti sanitary landfill.
In Selangau, has the river been rid of the lintah (leeches)? They may be of great medicinal value, but you don’t want them in your bath!
In Lundu, the Stunggang has a chronic problem from chemical run-offs from the oil palm schemes nearby, and from poisons used by idiots who sneak in under cover of darkness to kill fish. July is the favourite month for the illegal ‘tuba fishing’.
We need politicians with human hearts and less riverine bias to handle the problem. There is an ordinance governing tuba fishing hardly enforced.
Back to the Tabuan – we cannot blame illegal loggers, for there are none, and I don’t think we can hold the gods responsible. No Nujah Menoa ceremony is necessary. Spirits of the mountains? No mountains around here, and the few hills have been levelled for housing development. No jungle either, the beautiful Angsana trees have been felled to make way for an overhead bridge at Jalan Tun Jugah.
Adopt a river
Let’s try the direct method of saving a river: adopt it. One organisation will adopt a river or part of a river and be responsible for its cleanliness, by cleaning it, say once a month. If you have a dozen organisations, the river will be clean throughout the year. And – this is crucial – CATCH and PUNISH anybody who is caught throwing so much as a cigarette butt into the river!
This is one way of reviving the spirit of volunteerism which we are about to lose completely. Why? Because we have been indoctrinated to rely on and wait for the government to move and that the state government agencies responsible wait for the federal government to give money before they move. In the meantime nobody moves. Remember the story above?
Let the Tabuan live
The Kuching North City Commission has carried out the cleaning of Sungai Bintangor. So can we, the Southerners, clean our Tabuan, just to show the Northerners that what they can do we can do better? We shall save the Tabuan. Otherwise, the Northerners may lay claim to our pemakai menoa if we let our own river die.
Don’t rubbish this talk. We must walk the talk. Save the Tabuan now.
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