MBKS seeks help of fisheries unit to test water sample from pond

KUCHING: Kuching South City Council (MBKS) has sought the help of the Department of Agriculture Sarawak (DAS) fisheries unit to test the water condition in the pond at Taman Sahabat here after dozens of fish there were found dead recently.

Mayor Dato James Chan hoped that the unit’s findings would help the council find out what had killed the fish in the pond.

“We have contacted the fisheries unit last week and are now waiting for them to come to the park and take some water samples to test the water condition.

“From what I understand, it’s only the tilapia fish which have turned up dead so we have to find out what’s wrong. This phenomena does not happen all the time,” he said at a press conference after distributing reusable bags in connection with MBKS’ No Plastic Bag Campaign at Stutong Community Market here yesterday.

He was responding to a recent news report where a member of the public had chastised the council for not conducting a thorough probe to find out what had killed the fish, which had produced foul smell at the expense of park users.

Chan pointed out that among the factors that might have caused the fish to die were the weather or that visitors to the park were feeding the fish with unsuitable food such as bread, cakes or rice.

He also explained the fish in the pond at Taman Sahabat were in fact not released by MBKS but from members of the public.

“MBKS has never purchased any fish to be released into ponds at parks under the council’s jurisdiction. The fish and even tortoises are all voluntarily ‘donated’ by the public.

“But my concern here is that with the fish reproducing, this might lead to overpopulation in the pond as more fish also means the water gets murkier faster and this can sometimes also produce bad smell,” he said.

Nevertheless, Chan assured that MBKS is getting to the bottom of the matter and called on the public not to be overly critical of the council which is doing its best to ensure that areas under its jurisdiction are well managed and maintained.

“We are trying our best to be a responsible council and if there’s anything the public would like to voice their concern about, please contact us and I’m sure my staff will take the necessary action.”

He advised the public not to resort to venting their anger and frustrations on social media should they be unhappy with the council such as over the incident regarding the dead fish.

“I noticed that there are times when netizens always seem to focus on negative things and post them on social media which will then become viral once picked up by other netizens. This is not good because MBKS has done many other positive things and yet they have rarely been highlighted.

“We are all trying our best so if you start criticising MBKS, I feel that it is unfair and not right unless we did something that’s very wrong. The council works very hard to ensure that things run smoothly in the city,” he