Keeping freshwater fisheries area healthy
WHEN members of the Freshwater Fisheries Society (Peniat) in Tanjung Tualang, Perak, found that their fishing areas were invaded by water hyacinth, which caused a drop in the number of catches two years ago, they knew they needed help to curb the deteriorating quality of the lake ecosystem.
They approached Universiti Putra Malaysia’s (UPM) Faculty of Environmental Studies to help them deal with the problem.
The problem was relevant to the faculty not only because it was an environmental concern, but it was specifically within the faculty’s research niche, which included the fields of Environmental Quality and Conservation and Environmental Pollution Control Technology.
The two parties embarked on a collaboration, comprising environmental forensic investigations carried out by the faculty in a long-term programme spearheaded by Faculty of Environmental Studies senior lecturers Dr Nor Rohaizah Jamil and Dr Zufarzaana Zulkeflee. The aim of the initiative was to boost the socio-economic level of the community by conserving the environment in a sustainable manner.
Findings from a series of environmental forensic studies carried out since 2016 were later presented to stakeholders of the fisheries areas in December last year.
“Based on the specific request from Peniat, we at the Faculty of Environmental Studies developed the strategy to investigate the problem, identify the cause of environmental degradation in the area, came out with a comprehensive report and developed an action plan on how to solve the environmental issues,” Zufarzaana said.
“From there, the ‘2018 Love Our Lake (LOL)’ programme, the first formal programme conducted in the action plan, was launched to tackle the first three main concerns, namely the eradication of the overpopulated invasive macrophyte (water hyacinth), improvement of water flow through channelisation and cleanup of floatables solid waste.”
The Faculty of Environmental Studies, via its students association, launched the LOL programme, a premier programme with the inland fishermen community from February to April recently. The highlight of the event took place from April 2 to 4.
The main sponsor for the corporate social responsibility programme was Ultratrex Machinery Sdn Bhd, which contributed in the operational cost of the lake clean-up and sponsored the use of machineries to remove the water hyacinth covering 200 hectares of the surface of the lake.
About 200 people from the UPM contingent, representatives of various local agencies and community members conducted a post clean-up activity to ensure the total eradication of invasive macrophytes (water hyacinth) to prevent the re-spreading of the weed during the highlight of the programme.
“We, as the coordinator of the programme, managed to involve major stakeholders from government agencies and private companies, as well as individuals, to work together and contribute directly or indirectly towards the programme.
“For example, we got Ultratrex Machinery to sponsor the major cost of harvesting the water hyacinth by supplying us with a weed harvester. We also got the Irrigation and Drainage Department to help us on the issue of channelisation and the clean-up of the floatable solid wastes,” said Zufarzaana.
Nor Rohaizah said: “This time around, the programme kick-started with the solution to one of the most critical issues faced by the inland fishermen community, i.e. the spread of invasive macrophyte population, which covered more than 90 per cent of the surface of the lake.”
“This alien species, which originated from the Amazon, not only disrupted fishing activity and boat navigation in the areas, but also degraded water quality and harmed aquatic ecosystem of the lake as a whole,” she added.
Zufarzaana gave her assurance that programmes to boost inland fishermen community would be carried out continuously in the future to
This alien species, which originated from the Amazon, not only disrupted fishing activity and boat navigation in the areas, but also degraded water quality and harmed aquatic ecosystem of the lake as a whole.”