Some Rivers in Sarawak are ‘Dead’.
Several rivers in Sarawak are as good as dead.
They’ve become so polluted that they are no longer able to support well-functioning ecosystems.
In effect, they have become little more than open sewers where only bacteria and a few hardy species of plants and animals can thrive.
Several other species of fish and aquatic plants in these rivers are dying off.
This shocking, if not entirely surprising, fact comes courtesy of Dr. James Dawos Mamit, deputy minister of Energy, Green Technology and Water in the Bornean state.
“Without dissolved oxygen, fishes cannot live and the same fate awaits plants growing within the affected rivers,” he elucidated.
Fertilizers and other chemical pollutants, which are often directly dumped into rivers or else leach away from nearby farms and factories, pose especial dangers to the health of rivers in parts of Malaysia.
Needless to say, Sarawak is hardly alone in the country when it comes to the blight of river pollution.
In Penang, for instance, recent investigations have found that long stretches of several local waterways are little more than smelly and unsightly stretches of putrid water.