BruneiDirect.Com
|
||
|
Your Comments ... Click Here |
||
|
A Kampong Ayer Stink Ignatius Stephen Bandar Seri Begawan – There was utter disbelief. How could that be? It was so nauseating. The sight of tons of floating debris and the constant refuse that everyone seemed to cast out was enough to turn anyone’s stomach. It was indeed not a welcoming spectacle. “Brunei is supposed to be one of the richest countries in the region. Then how come its main tourist attraction is so polluted with garbage?” the bewildered tourist who had just gone on a Kampong Ayer boat ride couldn’t help remarking. It was one of the highlights of his visit to Brunei. He and his friends were delighted with the friendly boatman and the smiling children The hospitality of the people as he took the guests for an impromptu home visit in the water village was a simply unexpected delight. The view of the hundreds of homes on the water and the sunset against the splendid backdrop of the golden domed mosque was breathtaking. It was indeed a tour worth taking. The sheer peace as you skimmed over the placid waters with the distant call to prayers rising above the drone of the motor skimming past the slightly choppy river was therapeutic. What a wonderful evening just after tea. But the man could not forget the rubbish, the filthy flotsam and jetsam that marred the scene. And at one place somewhere downriver he came across the most shocking sight of all: a revolting mass of filth he had ever seen. It was low tide and packs of stray dogs foraged about and large flocks of birds picked on the mount of refuse. And as the boat cruised by the stench was revolting. He quickly directed the cruise away from the disgusting sight. No doubt the next tide and an accompanying downpour will wash the dreadful accumulation away. But somewhere else perhaps at another bend of the river the sorry scene, alas, will repeat in time. Back on shore the visitor recounted the episode to friends. No doubt he will tell others as well. And that is not good for the country or its tourism industry. He was genuinely concerned. He wished that something could be done. He really seemed to like Brunei and hoped to return one day. But then when he comes back, perhaps in a couple of year’s time will the mountain of garbage be still there? Or will the mess be even bigger? Or else he will enjoy his Brunei River cruise minus the floating junk and filth? However how can we save Kampong Ayer from disease and severe pollution, you may ask. It is, after all, our national heritage and the problem is real. First stop the rubbish at its source, someone the other day suggested. That would call for individual contributions: Educate the people from dumping everything into the river. At the moment even unwanted fridges and even larger household items are dumped into the water. Get the people involved. Mount a campaign on TV and newspapers and other media to keep the river clean. That would be a first important step. Let the minister and other officials mention it in their speeches. In other wards create awareness. People who live there and the hundreds of river taxis should be the eyes and ears and they should turn environmentalists. That way, as an initial step, the source of the rubbish is stopped. Some years ago a river clean up scheme was launched but what happened was that more garbage was dumped and it was hard to keep up with the cleaning. Save our mangroves too in the process. Mangroves create nursery areas for fish and other wildlife and reduce erosion and reflected wave energy. We should protect and restore remaining natural mangrove riverbanks they are nature’s own filtering system. Besides it provides a mysterious backdrop which seldom fails to thrill tourists. “What is inside those dark clumps of vegetation? They usually ask. And you can spin your stories around that. What about giant crocodiles, for example. Secondly a massive dredging of present rubbish should be done. Dustbins should be provided and a collection process instituted. Then if the authorities are really serious and if Kampong Ayer is to be a pristine area a 24-hour 7-day-a-week environmental response team should be put in place. Its tributaries and surrounding canals should be cleansed. Now a lot of the debris dirt and plastic and other material are washed down into the main river creating problems. That should be monitored and controlled. But then is it too late to implement, what you might call, “Save Our Sungei Brunei” project? No doubt many are thinking about it. But when can we really get on doing it. A start in a small way has begun with the removal of the fish market from the town jetty area. The hawkers on the rover bank area are ask not to dump everything into Sungei Kianggeh. As a consequence that stretch of the river, unlike before, is much cleaner now. These are little encouraging beginnings. But more can be and should be done. Sooner the better.
|
Where have all the
'Cat Fish' gone? In the 60s I still remember when the Brunei
River was still clean and the water was clear there were
plenty of the cat fish around. These cat fish or ‘Bedukang’
are scavengers and have a duty to perform in removing human
feces from the Kampong Ayer. Today with the abundant of
impurities and plastic bags in the water none of these cat
fish could be seen in the Brunei River at all. All of them
had perished. Likewise several other species of fish like
the 'Penjulong' had also disappeared. Several species of
shells such as 'Kupang', 'Selisip', 'Lukan', 'Tiram' and so
on have also disappeared. What I am concerned is that no one
seemed to be bothered at all to take a look at this
deteriorating phenomena in our Brunei River happening in
front of our very eyes. Could someone in our Government wake
up and save this precious heritage of ours for our future
generations to inherit. Please save our rivers and mangroves
after all Brunei is only a very small nation.
Name: Siti Mariam Abdullah ---------------------------------------------------------------- You people are somehow unreasonable in blaming Kampong Ayer's pollution. First of all, I do pity people blaming the government about the pollution. The government did take action on improving in providing free rubbish bin to every household with the daily clean-up of garbage in Kampong Ayer. As per sight-seeing of mine, I can see rubbish dumping from Kampong Ayer resident is some how lesser and lesser meaning government plan is WORKING in Kampong Ayer. Meanwhile, the uncontrollable situation is nowadays garbage in Sungai Brunei now is the result of the bad habit of those people who live on LAND, try ask yourself, have you ever thrown any rubbish into Brunei River? The answer is definitely "YES". With everyone throwing junk into the river, it's polluting it. Plus Tamu vendors, Gerai satay vendors, try to please themselves, dumping rubbish into the river. That's polluting. If you really don't believe it, you can go sit nearby Tamu or Gerai Satay and you'll get the answer and definitely, you'll help polluting the river. Here, I'll like to say, I quite pity the people who does a lot of complaining by simply moving their mouth and fingers destroying the famous place and government of Brunei.
Name: Anjo ---------------------------------------------------------------- Firstly, I am glad that this issue is finally given a voice of its own. I myself have been thinking of this ever since I started living in kg air back in 1996. What a big culture shock I had. To see the waters surging beneath my father in law's house to the waters rapidly receding when it's low tide. I find life here quite comfortable. But what worries me, and this I do mention to my husband lots of times, are the waste being dumped into the river. To my astonishment, I see multitude of objects lying on the ground when the water has gone. I see broken buckets, old bicycles, washing machines, old water taxis which has been decommissioned and left adrift to any destination, even parts of houses which had been repaired and had been torn down. The same goes for high tide, plastic wrappers, newspapers, old books, you name it, and it’s there. Not to mention waste, both human and animal alike. You might think twice before setting foot on the ground without proper protection i.e hard boots. To my mind, this issue has to be addressesed to all Bruneians. Environmentally speaking, we along with the relevant authorities have to take action if we are ever to protect this piece of history. But, steps had been taken. Rubbish bins are given to all houses in the attempt to reduce rubbish being thrown into the river. Every morning, the workers would come along and replace the heavily laden plastic bins with new ones. This has my standing applause, first step toward a better environment. There are, what I called rubbish boats, patiently picking up rubbish that floats around kg air. This receives my second standing ovation. I suggest that we start educating people about how good and better for us to have a clean and beautiful country, and what better way to do that but with our youngsters. Eructation is crucial for they are the adults of the future, they in turn would educate their children and the cycle would continue on and on. I positively think that we can do this, but it takes time to undo the damage that we had ourselves done to it.
Name: kg air lady ---------------------------------------------------------------- I totally agree that we must start a campaign to clean up the Brunei River. To do this we must start at the grass root level that is to educate our young students at school. I am impressed at the government's effort to beautify the canal along the Sultan's Highway near the airport with jogging paths and green vegetations. However I just wonder if there is any effort being done to clean up the dirty water or affluent before it is being discharged into the Brunei River? We should realise that all the dirty water comes from the various housing schemes and villages around Serusop, Jalan Berakas, as well as from the Gadong shopping and workshop areas. Sewerage and motor oils are just dumped into the Gadong River. Surely a cleaning up process should be carried out first before the water should be fit to be discharged towards the Kampong Ayer. Perhaps our National Disaster Committee should look into this matter?
Name: Harundi
V.Bakshi ---------------------------------------------------------------- You're right. Everybody should be educated not to dump things into the river, as it's not meant to be a trash can. Trash and garbage have always been a serious problem in most countries, especially in the Third World. The Government should take action on these matters, by creating proper handling to these garbage. Perhaps the governments could learn from the developed countries on how they handle their garbage. A certain governmental organization should be established to tackle these matters, to take regularly trash from household on daily basis and from business establishments as well. And of course also from public trash cans across the nation. Place more public trash cans in public places which often visited by the public, namely the beaches, shopping complexes, sport fields, public facilities, and include on the sidewalks off the street, so public will be able to dump their unused things easily in any spot, alleviate their reason to dump irresponsibly. But I still don't know where all these trash and garbage goes after they've been collected and garnered in one big place or what to do with them. Maybe this is the thing that should be learnt from the developed countries. Educate the residents to keep the nation clean as it could represent the Bruneian is a clean people. Educate them that abandoned garbage could lead to an unhealthy environment and thus spreading diseases and bad smell. As an Islamic Sultanate, remind them that in Holy Koran there's a verse that says "cleanliness is a part of the faith to Islam", and it points out that cleanliness is a serious aspect considered by Islam. But as far as I know, the thing there is better than here, as public throw their trash and dump things anywhere they want is in Jakarta (street, river, etc.), making this city a big trash can. Surely it's not a good sight in this city. Dumping things into the river create more serious problem than dump them on the street, as the garbage piling up and block the stream, and when heavy downpour occurs, the rivers couldn't take more water to keeping thus the dirty water floods many areas in the city.
Name: Adri F. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Kampong Ayer stinks; well where else do they throw all their waste? The Government need to put 1 set of rules on Kampong Ayer areas 'stop throwing garbage' in the river or else fine B$500..i know the garbage floats all over the place cant pin-point 1 person. Get the People who live there to clean up their place. I wonder when they move to land housing schemes, they are going to throw their garbage’s behind the kitchen window like they did while living on Kampong Ayer river. Practice a habit of cleanliness now so the next generation can follow a better life in the future. Can’t blame the Government for dirty polluted water, send letter to all the Kampong Ayer people who lived there and warn them to get their act together for their own health and clean village. Hopefully the Schemes housing and land owners on land also be reminded to clean their compound, not to leave the old rusty car or carnages throw untie coz stray dogs mite fine food from there and carry them places and homes look messy and look un occupy. Love your home and compound, healthy home mite start a happy people living in it. Name: Rimba's lady ---------------------------------------------------------------- My dad told me that few decades ago there were few dolphins sighted around the Kampong Ayer area. That time Kampong Ayer was really a clean place, free of rubbish. I am not sure what my dad mentioned about was true. But the possibilities could be there. Maybe its because the kampong waters had been spoiled by rubbish and those filthy floaters, those dolphins swam away.
Name: Darat People ----------------------------------------------------------------
Your Comments ...
Click Here
|
|
| Disclaimer | ||
- Copyright © 2006 -
www.brudirect.com
All rights reserved.
Revised:
November 18, 2007.