KUCHING: A “mysterious illness” affecting longhouse residents in Rumah Bansan and the other five longhouses in Mukah, where an aluminium smelting plant has been in operation since 2009, has compelled Sarawak PKR to investigate if there is a “link” between the two. Party chief Baru Bian said that they will be employing an independent team of experts to find out if there is a connection between the emissions from the plant and the “mysterious illness”.
The Iban natives living in Rumah Bansan longhouse at Sungai Bedengan and five other longhouses in Mukah believe that their illnesses originate from the smelting plant, which is about 300 metres from their homes.
Bian, a lawyer and Ba’Kelalan assemblyman, said the priority now is to find ways to address the issue.
“We must find out ways and means how this issue can be addressed. In the meantime, we need to read the environmental impact assessment (EIA) reports.
“Once we have the full picture, then my firm is willing to file a court injunction,” he said.
Bian, who took part in the Lynas protest in Kuantan, was asked to comment on the plight of the people in Mukah that has been given little attention by the authorities.
Health and environmental issues
Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud is the assemblyman for the area while Mohd Leo Toyad is its Member of Parliament.
Their plight was highlighted by Sarawak Dayak Iban Association (Sadia) last year, when it sent a team to record the longhouse folk’s complaints.
Residents had complained that they have been suffering from itchiness, skin diseases, breathing difficulties, headaches, coughing and all sorts of health problems since the aluminium smelting plant began operations in September 2009.
“The environment is also suffering. All the fish in nearby rivers and in ponds are gone, paddy and fruit trees cannot bear fruits and their vegetables cannot grow.
“On top of this, the air has a stinging smell and the rain water which we collect and use for drinking water is turning black,” they told the Sadia team.
They also told the team that even the nearby secondary forests were dying.
Upon hearing the plight of the people, Kidurong assemblyman Chiew Chiu Sing raised the issue in his debate speech at the State Legislative Assembly sitting in June last year.
No response from Taib
In his speech, Chiew said the people near the smelting plant had never experienced health, environmental and social problems in the area until the plant became operational.
“The longhouse folk told me that when they go to their farms to find food, it is becoming harder and harder these days. Their vegetables are not growing… and when they try to sell them, people do not want to buy, and so, what can they do, they eat it themselves.
“Their fruit trees like coconut, mango, star fruits and others are also not fruiting well like before.
“Women staying in these longhouses complain of dizziness, uneasy breathing, frequent coughing, pains in the bones and just generally not feeling well.
“The rain water which they are using has a different odour to it; bathing with it makes one’s body itch and drinking it could cause diarrhoea to children,” Chew said.
Some 27 families in Rumah Bansan and other neighbouring longhouses are affected.
Thus far, neither Taib nor Toyad has responded to the complaints.
Press Metal via its 80% owned subsidiary Press Metal Sarawak operates the aluminium smelting plant in Mukah.
Built on 366 hectares of land, its primary focus is to be a major industrial manufacturing development in Sarawak.
Its first phase smelting capacity was to produce 100,000 metric tonnes per annum and the final capacity was expected to be about 300,000 metric tonnes by 2011.
There are plans to build a second plant in Bintulu.
Joseph Tawie | March 12, 2012
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