Pitas group hands another memo to Musa over shrimp project
Published on: Thursday, April 27, 2017
Kota Kinabalu: Four years have passed since the Pitas farm project began operating, but it is still far from alleviating poverty among the rural poor there, as intended by the State Government. Instead, the clearing of 2,300 acres of mangrove sites for commercial shrimp farming further disrupted the traditional livelihood of the over 2,000 villagers from six kampungs, alleged the Pitas G6 committee on Wednesday.
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The G6 committee comprises representatives from the six affected villages namely Kampung Sungai Eloi, Kampung Datong, Kampung Telaga, Kampung Gumpa, Kampung Ungkup and Kampung Boluuoh, many of whom had settled nearby the Telaga River, which connects directly to the open Sulu Sea, and mangrove areas.The people comprise the Tombuono, Suluk and Rungus ethnic communities who depend on the river for fish as a source of income for nine generations. "Easily as much as 50kg of fish could be netted before and fishermen could earn up to RM100 a day from selling them, but now catches barely reach 2kg as the river is no longer filled with fish," said a fishermen from Kampung Telaga, here. He was met along with 12 other G6 committee members who submitted a memorandum against the shrimp farming project in their villages to Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman at the new State Administrative Complex here.
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It is the group's second memorandum against the shrimp farming project with the first one forwarded last year. The Pitas shrimp farming project known as the Pitas Shrimp Park is an integrated aquaculture project costing around RM1.23 billion and is aimed at providing job opportunities and helping the rural poor when it was announced by Musa in December 2014.
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Around RM963 million of the cost was to be raised from the private sector through a joint venture between Yayasan Sabah's Inno Fisheries Sdn Bhd and Sunlight Seafood (Sabah) Sdn Bhd. The implementation of the project was also expected to bring among others infrastructure developments including for the first time piped water, the park would have around 1,500 shrimp ponds, a hatchery, a research and development laboratory and other facilities. It was said the project would also generate over 3,000 jobs for locals. But not only had fish wound up dead in the river, as few as 30 people from the villages have been hired with no sign of piped water to date, said the group's spokesperson, Norida Samad. "Even fellow villagers who worked for the company did not stay long as many quickly resigned in one or two months due to work load and low pay, which was around RM600 a month," she said. She also said no more than 50 ponds are presently operating although 2,300 acres had been cleared for the purpose, adding that some ponds are now being left idle. According to her, fellow villagers found that the operator had increased feeding time for the shrimps to hasten their growth and the discharge was being directly released to the river untreated. As a result, the number of fish and other animals including protected species like the proboscis monkeys, kingfishers and sunbears dwindled sharply over the last four years, she added. Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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