|
| all news articles | by topics |
|
news
articles about singapore's wild places
|
| see
also below New Straits Times, 1 Jul 05 Dumping at sea may incur mandatory jail The New Straits Times, 29 Jun 05 Oil slick: Ship captain flees, six crewmen detained by DOE by Siti Nurbaiyah Nadzmi Channel NewsAsia, 29 Jun 05 Malaysia detains Singapore-owned tanker on suspicion of oil spill Today Online, 29 Jun 05 S'pore-owned tanker detained in M'sia The Straits Times, 28 Jun 05 Source of oil slick still a mystery, say officials By Ahmad Osman Channel NewsAsia, 27 Jun 05 Malaysia hunts ship that spilled oil on south coast: official The Straits Times, 27 Jun 05 Mysterious huge oil slick hits Johor beach By Ahmad Osman Channel NewsAsia, 26 Jun 05 Malaysia's south coast hit by oil slick: report KUALA LUMPUR : Malaysia's southern Johor state, which lies opposite Singapore, has been hit by a giant oil slick believed to be the region's worst environmental disaster in recent years, a report said Sunday. Fishermen in Pengerang, on the southernmost tip of Malaysia, on Saturday alerted the state's environment department to the five-kilometre (three-mile) long slick, the New Straits Times said. Environment officials have taken samples of the oil which has affected docks and beaches in the area known for its fishing industry. However, they are yet to determine the source of the spill. "The Pengerang shore has experienced oil slick cases before but this is the worst I have seen," fisherman Teo Seng Huat told the newspaper. The report included photographs which showed a thick layer of oil on beaches and floating at sea, and black oily water surrounding boats in the harbour. The waters off Johor's shores lie along the region's busiest shipping lanes in the South China Sea. - AFP /ct  Channel NewsAsia, 27 Jun 05 Malaysia hunts ship that spilled oil on south coast: official KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysian authorities vowed Monday to track down the ship responsible for a huge oil spill off its southern coast which has caused serious damage and forced hundreds of fishermen to lay down their nets. However, fishing groups criticised the slow pace of the clean-up and experts warned the spill could cause irreversible environmental damage to marine life. "We are trying to identify the ship that spilled the oil," said Abdul Rahman Awang, director of the environment department in southern Johor state which lies opposite Singapore. The busy shipping route was hit on Thursday by a five-kilometre (three-mile) long oil slick which left Johor beaches covered with tar balls and harbours full of black, oily water. Some 200 fishermen in Pengerang, on the southernmost tip of Malaysia, have not been out to sea since Friday because they fear the oil slicks will damage their nets. They also criticised local authorities for not carrying out immediate clean-up operations near the river mouth and on the beach, and said each boat was suffering daily losses of up to 1,000 ringgit (263 dollars). Abu Bakar Mohamad, president of the Fishermen Association of Pengerang, told AFP that some 200 fishermen had been affected by the spill. "It is a major disaster. We hope that whoever is responsible will be caught and be forced to pay compensation directly to the fishermen," he said. "We hope the authorities will clean up the oil spill as soon as possible so that my members can feed their family," he added. Fisherman Harun Salim said that because the oil sludge still covered the local Rengit river, most of the fishermen were still not able to go out to sea. "The oil sludge will destroy our nets. The stain on the nets will drive the fish away," he said. Vincent Chow, an environmental scientist with the Malaysian Nature Society in Johor, said oil slicks in the area were a common problem because it was located opposite one of the world's busiest ports -- Singapore. "There appears to be no contingency plans to tackle the oil spill and prevent it from hitting the coast. It is going to be an ecological disaster in the next few years," he told AFP. "The authorities must arrest the culprit. They must be punished so that it will be a lesson and deter others from committing the offence," he said. - AFP/ir The Straits Times, 27 Jun 05 Mysterious huge oil slick hits Johor beach By Ahmad Osman JOHOR BARU - MORE than 5km of the beach in Pengerang in southern Johor have been hit by an oil slick in what is believed to be the region's worst environmental disaster in recent years. Oil from the slick, which started to wash ashore on Thursday, also polluted the river in Sungai Rengit, a popular town with Singaporeans, who cross the Causeway for a quick seafood meal in the Chinese restaurants there. Johor's environment officials have been studying samples of the sticky oil they have gathered from the water and the beach and harbour areas in Pengerang. But the authorities have made little headway in trying to establish the source of the slick, to which they were alerted on Saturday by fishermen in the southern Johor constituency. Residents of Pengerang and Sungai Rengit said environment officials were expected to start massive clean up operations today. The illegal discharge of sludge by ships in Johor waters has been a problem in recent years. In August 2003, at least 4km of the Tanjung Piai coastline in Pontian were affected by sludge dumped in the Strait of Malacca. Fishermen in Pengerang and Sungai Rengit have been unable to go to sea since last Thursday. Fishing in these conditions would only ruin their nets, they said. As it is, they have been kept busy scraping the sticky sludge off the bottom of their 50 or so boats. 'We are losing our daily income,' said Harun Salleh, 57. They earn RM60 (S$26) to RM100 a day. 'But we dare not take the risk of going out to sea and coming back with our nets glued together by the oil. 'If that happened our nets would be destroyed and it would cost us much more than a few days' earnings to buy new nets.' Mr Kelvin Lim, 35, who has been living in Pengerang for 30 years, said the area was sometimes hit by sludge discharged by passing ships. 'But the new spill is the worst I have seen so far,' he said. Mr Colin Teh, vice-president of the Greater Desaru Tourism Association, was yesterday quick to assure visitors that Desaru and the restaurants in Sungai Rengit, had not been affected by the spill. 'The seafood in these restaurants does not come from the Sungai Rengit river. It comes from the deep waters of the South China Sea and areas such as Mersing,' said the official of the association representing businesses in the tourism industry. A check with Singapore authorities turned up no reports of the slick hitting local waters or beaches. The Straits Times, 28 Jun 05 Source of oil slick still a mystery, say officials By Ahmad Osman Environment official have not found the source of the oil slick polluting Pengerang in southern Johor since last Thursday. "We are still investigating," the director of Johor's Department of the Environment, Dr Abdul Rahman Awang, said yesterday. He said he would meet the relevant people to discuss the measures required to clean up the mess created by the spill. "We want to do the cleaning up as soon as possible." he added. The spill polluted more than 5km of the beach in Pengerang. The river in Sungai Rengit in the same constituency was also hit by the sticky sludges of oil. Fisherman in Pengerang stopped going to sea since Thursday because they did not want their nets to be ruined. They believe the spill was caused by a passing ship which discharged oil sludges illegally. Mr Abu Bakar Mohamad, chairman of the Pengerang Fishermen Association, said yesterday that his memebrs were waiting for the outcome of the investigations by environment officials analysing samples of the spill. They will press for compensation for loss of income if a ship was responsible for the pollution, he said. His members, he added, were also waiting for instructions from the authorities on how the clean up operation would be carried out and who would pay for the equipment and manpower that would be required. Channel NewsAsia, 29 Jun 05 Malaysia detains Singapore-owned tanker on suspicion of oil spill KUALA LUMPUR - Authorities in Malaysia have detained a Singapore-owned tanker suspected of spilling oil off the south coast which has forced scores of fishermen to lay down their nets, a state official said Tuesday. "We have detained a Singapore-owned ship and its crew. The chemistry department is doing a matching test to find if the oil in the water is the same as in the tanker," Freddie Long, a Johor state executive councillor, told AFP. Long said the tanker was detained on Saturday and a clean-up was expected to begin Wednesday once equipment is deployed. The ship is being held in Pasir Gudang port, said Long, who is in charge of environmental issues in the state. The busy shipping route was hit on Thursday by a five-kilometre-long (three-mile) slick which left beaches in Johor covered with tar balls and harbours full of black, oily water. Some 200 fishermen at Pengerang on the southernmost tip of Malaysia have not been out to sea since Friday because they fear the oil slick will damage their nets. They have criticised local authorities for not carrying out an immediate clean-up and said each boat operator was suffering daily losses of up to 1,000 ringgit (263 dollars). Describing the incident as "an irresponsible act," Long said: "The people involved do not care for the environment. It is disgusting." He urged courts to hand down tough penalties on polluters. "I am warning the shipping industry. Stop tanker-cleaning activity. It has a serious impact on the livelihood of our local fishermen," Long said. Abu Bakar Mohamad, president of the Fishermen's Association of Pengerang, said Monday that some 200 fishermen had been affected by the spill. - AFP/ir Today Online, 29 Jun 05 S'pore-owned tanker detained in M'sia A SINGAPORE-owned tanker and its crew, suspected of spilling oil off the coast of Johor, has been detained in the state's Pasir Gudang Port, a state official said yesterday. "The chemistry department is doing a test to find out if the oil in the water matches that in the tanker," Mr Freddie Long, a Johor state executive councillor, told AFP. The spill has forced scores of fishermen to stay at home, he added. Mr Long, who is in charge of environmental issues in the state, said the tanker was detained on Saturday and a clean-up was expected to begin today once equipment is deployed. A Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) official told Today last night that the MPA had not received reports of any vessel being detained in Malaysia. The New Straits Times, 29 Jun 05 Oil slick: Ship captain flees, six crewmen detained by DOE by Siti Nurbaiyah Nadzmi JOHOR BARU: The captain of the vessel responsible for an oil slick off the Johor coast jumped onto a lifeboat and escaped to Batam, Indonesia, when police moved in today. However, six crewmen of the Aranda were detained for questioning by the state Department of Environment for polluting the area close to Sungai Rengit, last Sunday. State executive councillor for tourism and environment Freddie Long said the crew were detained three nautical miles off Tanjung Ayam, Kota Tinggi, while the vessel has been docked at Pasir Gudang. "DOE is investigating if the oil slick is caused by the vessel discharging oil into Malaysian waters," he said. It is believed that the Aranda, owned by a company registered in Singapore, had earlier cleaned another cargo vessel, the Zhong Hua, bound for a dry dock in Singapore. The cleaning was done in Malaysian waters. Long said the oil was a by-product of cleaning the cargo vessel, called "slop oil". It is believed that the slop oil could have been deliberately discharged to cut the cost of transporting it to a processing plant. "Slop oil is a scheduled waste by-product and it is prohibited from being brought into the country." He said the DOE had sent samples to the Chemistry Department to check if they matched those taken from the ship. Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Azalina Othman, who is the MP for Pengerang, will on Friday visit the area affected by the oil slick. She will be accompanied by DOE officers checking the extent of the environmental damage to the area. New Straits Times, 1 Jul 05 Dumping at sea may incur mandatory jail KOTA TINGGI: The MP for Pengerang Datuk Azalina Othman will propose a mandatory jail sentence for those deliberately discharging scheduled waste into Malaysian waters following constant pollution in this area from the same source. Azalina said she will bring the matter to the Cabinet as it has now become normal practice for some vessel owners to discharge scheduled wastes off Pengerang. "This is because the laws are not a deterrent," she said. "No jail sentence had been imposed for the offence and the highest fine ever was only a mere RM220,000." The Environmental Quality Act 1974 provides a maximum fine of RM500,000 or five-year- jail term, or both, for such offences. "Only a mandatory jail sentence will send a clear message to the culprits that the Government is serious in handling this problem that has caused so much hardship to fishermen and damage to the coastal habitat." Azalina visited the Sungai Rengit Fishermen Association jetty this morning and witnessed clean-up operations at the Pengerang beaches polluted by an oil slick last Thursday. It was reported that a vessel off Pengerang had discharged oil that fouled a five-kilometre stretch of the pristine beach. links Related articles on Wild shores of Singapore |
| News articles are reproduced for non-profit educational purposes. | |
website©ria tan 2003 www.wildsingapore.com |