‘Artificial reefs to be laid down along state’s coastlines’

KUCHING: The state government is to lay down artificial reefs along the coastlines of Sarawak waters to sustain breeding grounds for marine resources.

Assistant Minister of Urban Planning, Land Administration and Environment Datu Len Taliff Saleh said the state government had so far planted artificial rifts in several locations including in Sematan, Satang, Talang-Talang Island and Similajau National Park.

“And we are in the process of laying down artificial reefs along all the coastal waters of Sarawak because in that way it will help encourage fish to hatch and multiply.

“The most important thing is to prevent illegal trawling. With the presence of artificial reefs, we don’t have to monitor our coastal waters 24 hours to make sure no illegal trawling is taking place.

“God willing, in a few years’ time, the whole coastal waters of Sarawak will be planted with artificial reefs,” he said when officiating at the seminar on Environmental Conservation for Sustainability here yesterday.

The seminar was jointly organised by the Malaysian Institute of Chemistry ( IKM) Sarawak branch and Natural Resources and Environment Board ( NREB).

Sarawak has a long coastline, which is about 1,000km in length from Tanjung Datu in Lundu to Merapok in Lawas.

On another note, Len said communication networks and digital coverage in the state would be widened as the state was embarking on digital economy and improvement in information, communication and technology infrastructure.

He urged all Sarawakians to take advantage of the improved telecommunication networks to develop ways to manage the environment more efficiently.

“When the government is emphasising e- economy, ebusiness or e- commerce, we can also develop a platform for eenvironment.

“I hope one day we can have real-time monitoring data on air and water quality and pollution discharge monitoring through remote sensing,” he said.

He believed that even waste management could be digitalised and Sarawak could emulate other countries that had developed systems to digitally manage their forest, water resources, and marine and coastal management and many more. ( ICT)