Environment

Explosion on river-barge kills one
By STEPHEN THEN

MIRI: An explosion ripped apart a fuel-laden river-barge in the heart of the city here, killing a crew member of the barge and injuring several others.

The barge, similar in size to a 60-tonne fishing vessel, was torn apart by the blast which occurred at about 9am Saturday.

The barge was docked along the banks of the Miri river adjacent to a petrol-station near the Krokop Industrial Estate.

It was loading several hundred drums of fuel for transportation into the interior when an explosion occurred.

Luckily, the vessel was docked inside the river and was more than 20 metres away from the petrol station.

The explosion caused a massive fire on board the vessel. The impact of the blast rocked nearby buildings, but did not cause any other serious injuries.

Workers on board the barge jumped into the river, but one of them, a youth, was found drowned at about 1pm. Another suffered burns while the rest were slightly injured.

Miri Police chief Asst Comm Jamaluddin Ibrahim said the cause of the blast was still being investigated.

In Sarawak, river-barges are used to transport fuel to interior outposts for sale to longhouse, sawmills and riverine towns and villages.

[ Source ]

About 20+- years ago, Miri town was rocked by another early morning explosion - the infamous Public Bank Gas Leak Explosion in town center. There were many similarities to today's incident - the explosion occurred during morning, near the busy town, and some casualties.

This morning I was driving and saw an odd column of smoke rising from town and thought nothing of it - until a friend from near the explosion called me up and informed me about it.

Today is Unlucky September 13th. Condolences to the families of the victim and injured.

MIRI: Petronas Carigali has suspended decommissioning works on a network of disused pipelines offshore Miri in northern Sarawak after detecting leakage along a 13km pipeline that lays between an oil platform in the South China Sea and the inshore Miri Crude Oil Terminal.

The company's contractor and staff from the Department of Environment are now in the midst of an operation to contain the spill and to clean up the oil sleeks that had washed ashore, causing pollution to a stretch of beach along an exclusive housing estate occupied by oil and gas industry expatriates in Lutong town, some 20km north of the city here.

DOE Miri chief Dayang Norbani on Thursday confirmed that the leakage has been contained and that 90% of the spill had been recovered.

"We are now in the midst of trying to recover the other 10%. Petronas' contractors are also cleaning up the beaches to ensure that the pollutants are removed.

"We are still trying to determine how the leak occurred and how much of the shoreline has been affected," she said when contacted.

To a question, she said the DOE is still trying to find out if any populated riverine villages were affected by the oil pollutants.

Dozens of workers from the oil company had been deployed at various points along the affected zones to ensure that the oil sleeks do not get washed back to the sea.

Petronas on Thursday issued a statement saying that "about 15 barrels of oil" trapped in the pipeline had leaked into the South China Sea, and the leakage was spotted at 7.40pm on Tuesday.

The company said that air surveillance had been carried out and it was found that there were no additional signs of leakage.

"The company had deployed divers to detect the exact location of the leakage on the pipeline for repair works to be done," said the statement.

The pipeline was installed in 1984. A new pipeline was installed last year.

The decommissioning works on the old pipeline started on Monday and was supposed to go on for three weeks.

Source

I came across a website all about the green planet project:

www.greenmaven.com

I like this site. There are a lot of things we can learn from about saving our planet earth.

Please check it out!

Miri Branch of Taiwan Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation Malaysia will be holding Recycling Activity at various locations in Miri on the 4th Sunday of every month.

Things we collect include newspapers, cardboards, paper items, aluminium items, plastic items, old clothes, toys, car batteries, and etc that are recycable. Sales from the recycling items are used for charity purpose.

Please be reminded polystyrene items cannot be recycled. As such, please do not send such items to our recycle points. Your co-operation will be much appreciated. And try to avoid using polystyrene items in your daily life.

Location:
1. Piasau Garden
2. Pujut 7 (in front the Pujut SUPP office)
3. Krokop 5
4. In front Faradale Shophouse
5. Morjaya

Date: 22nd June 2008
Time: 8.30 a.m. - 11.00 a.m

MIRI, Sarawak, Malaysia, June 17, 2008 (ENS) - A month-long blockade of logging roads by indigenous people in the state of Sarawak, Malaysia set to protest illegal logging on their communal lands is about to be broken up by police.

More than 100 indigenous Kenyah people gathered at the blockade site on the upper Moh River on the island of Borneo claim that the blockade is their only way of calling on representatives of a certain Company and government authorities to have a consultation and meet with them to listen to their problems and demands.

Otherwise, they say, the timber Company will continue to ignore their demands and plights.

Kenyahs blockade a logging road on the Upper Moh River. The banner says, "Do not rob the wealth from the poor people's land and give it to the rich in the city."

According to the Borneo Resources Institute in Miri, which issued a statement today on behalf of the Kenyah peoples, ever since the logging company started its logging operations in the upper Baram area, the indigenous communities have suffered the environmental impacts of logging.

They say the company simply encroached into their communal land and forest areas to carry out logging activities, without any consultation and consideration for their source of livelihood.

The Kenyahs have forwarded some "reasonable demands for social benefits and development of the community as they are the rights stakeholders that should be fairly benefit from forest resources in their area," the Borneo Resources Institute says.

The Kenyah say they resorted to the blockade action after the company and the state forest agency ignored their demands and their rights of access and claims to the benefits of their natural forest resources.

Since the blockade was erected, the company's logging activities have ceased. Hundreds of timber logs that had been felled are stacked up along the sides of the logging road because the Kenyahs have stopped all the logging trucks and other logging machines from entering the area and transporting timber from the area.

The Kenyahs have written a letter to the Sarawak Forestry Corporation, a state government agency, requesting that the agency carry out an urgent physical inspection of all logs that have been illegally felled by the company in the area.

They also called upon the Sarawak Forestry Corporation to stop them from carrying out its operation until all inspection of timber logs has been completed.

Their request has been ignored.

Believing that they have no other alternative and being compelled to bring attention to their plight, the indigenous Kenyahs of Kedaya Telang Usan area in Baram Region have resorted to staging this protest, which is still continuing.

On May 29, upon receiving complaints from the timber company, a group of personnel from the Sarawak Forestry Corporation, went to the blockade site to remove the wooden barricades, but they were restrained from dismantling the blockade.

As a result, the Sarawak Forestry Corporation filed a court action requesting a Warrant of Arrest, which has been granted by the Magistrate Court in Miri.

Police personnel from the Marudi Police Station were ordered to the blockade site to enforce the Warrant of Arrest on June 14. So far, no arrests have taken place.

[ Source ]

MIRI: Erratic increases in the price of rice have resulted in panic buying in rural areas in Bekenu, Niah and Marudi in northern Sarawak.

Bekenu, a sub-district, had almost run out of rice stock.

The district’s population of some 10,000 had been scrambling for Super 15% rice following the announcement that Bernas had fixed the price at RM1.80 per kilo to be the same as in the peninsula.

The June 1 date for this price standardisation coincided with the Gawai Dayak festival resulting in higher demand and panic-buying in the district.

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The lower-income group in Miri city, which has a population of 300,000 people, are rushing to buy the Bernas-controlled rice and this has affected stocks.

The price hikes have increased the price of rice by whopping 100%. We better go back to farming or change diet to grass.

The weather had been an oven lately just right after the high winds. This lasted several days and thankfully it started to rain intermittently (just as I had the car washed! It had to happen!) and it poured a lot last night.

This morning, we're finally getting breezey winds! And no haze!

MIRI: A fire gutted a longhouse making some 700 dwellers homeless in northern Sarawak yesterday.

The fire occurred at about midnight at Rumah Banyang occupied by 41 Iban families.

Last month, three longhouse blocks were destroyed in the Punan Bah village in Kapit Division in central Sarawak, leaving 1,000 Punan villagers homeless.

Rumah Banyang, which was built during the colonial era, is located about 90km south of here in the Sibuti parliamentary constituency, sandwiched between Miri and the Bintulu parliamentary seats.

Miri Division Fire chief Serumi Ali said that the fire spread very fast and by the time they reached the scene, the longhouse was already gutted.

Several non-governmental bodies like the Red Crescent and the Tzu Chi Buddhist Society were providing aid to the victims.

[ Source ]

Please help provide aid to the longhouse victims by contacting by contacting these non-governmental bodies and ask how you can help. Fire safety equipment & training should be provided to the longhouse settlers to prevent such disasters occurring.

Contact Info:

美里紅心月會
Miri Red Crescent Society

Lot 312, Lorong 1
J. Bulan Sabit
PO Box 370
98007 Miri
Telephone : 6 085 411121
Fax : 085 420479

Tzu Chi Buddhist Society

Lot 1276-1279, 2nd Floor,
Centre Point Commercial Centre,
Jalan Melayu, 98000 Miri,
Sarawak.
Tel : 085-419753

THIRD CATEGORY WARNING WARNING ON STRONG WINDS AND ROUGH SEAS

1) STRONG WIND AND ROUGH SEAS THIRD CATEGORY WARNING - UPDATE

Strong westerly/southwesterly winds from 60 kmph and rough seas with waves up to 5.5 metres over coastal waters off North Sabah including Layang-Layang waters, Palawan and Kudat is expected to continue until Saturday, 17 May 2008.

This condition of strong winds and rough seas is dangerous to shipping activities, oil platform and coastal activities.

2) STRONG WIND AND ROUGH SEAS SECOND CATEGORY WARNING

Strong westerly winds of 50-60 kmph and rough seas with waves up to 4.5 metres over coastal waters off Kelantan, Terengganu, central of South China Sea , west Sabah, F.T Labuan and Sulu is expected to continue until Saturday, 17 May 2008.

This condition of strong winds and rough seas is dangerous to fishing and ferry services and coastal activities.

3) STRONG WIND AND ROUGH SEAS FIRST CATEGORY WARNING

Strong westerly winds of 40-50 kmph and rough seas with waves up to 3.5 metres over coastal waters off Northern Sarawak is expected to continue until Saturday, 17 May 2008.

This condition of strong winds and rough seas is dangerous to small crafts, recreational sea activities and sea sports.

4)THUNDERSTORMS WARNING

Thunderstorm activities over the coastal waters off North Sabah, Sulu and centre of South China Seas are expected to persist until night, Tuesday, 13 May 2008.

This condition can cause strong wind up to 40 km/h and rough seas up to 2.5 meters and dangerous to small boats.

[ Source ]

Extremely strong winds blew over Miri tonight and the night before, causing many trees to fall. Since I was caught outside when the winds blew, I waited for it to pass instead of driving back in the heavy winds. Once it had died down, on the drive back I was quite surprised to see that the road I usually travel along on the way home was completely blocked by 2(!) fallen trees and third one which partially blocked the road.

It was also quite interesting to see that the tree barks being stripped off the trees and scattered all over the roads along with the leaves and smaller branches.

I heard from other friends that more trees were uprooted in several other places due to the same winds.

Of course, strong winds were nothing new. We had experienced that last year when similarly strong winds blew rooftops away, and a few years before that was almost the sole reason for shutting down the Lambir Park for 2 years. In that particular one I was driving on the way home when it hit and I recall the twigs and 2-foot long branches and tree barks, leaves and various debris were hitting my windshield for the whole trip back. That one felled many trees as well.

First off, what are Orang Utans? Let's get to know the animal we're talking about here before we go any further about them being in peril. The orangutans are two species of great apes known for their intelligence, long arms and reddish-brown hair. Pretty ugly by ape standards, but nevertheless we should not be bias about saving cute animals only.

They are currently found only in rainforests on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra. These are the last places on Earth they are known to exist - these are cause for concern. Interestingly however, their fossils have been known found in Java, Vietnam and China.

Their name derives from the Malay and Indonesian phrase "orang hutan", meaning "Jungle Man". The orangutan is an official state animal of Sabah in Malaysia.

As far as I know, none exist in Sarawak. Right now you're probably thinking, "This Ian is a weirdo, why it be any of our concern if there are (apparently) none in Sarawak?"

Well, simply because - Sarawak is part of that Borneo, and as a whole, we needed to be aware of these things and help the effort in getting spreading awareness. The Bornean species of orangutans is endangered, and the Sumatran species is listed critically endangered.

It is this news article that got me thinking about the severity of situation.

Very shocking quotes from the article:

"For Central Kalimantan, the species will be gone as soon as three years from now"

"Experts believe the overall extinction rate of Borneo orangutans is nine per cent per year, but in Central Kalimantan they are disappearing even faster due to unchecked expansion of palm oil plantations."

So this is what got the conservationists jumping up and down three years ago when they accused Sarawak's oil palm plantation of destroying the orang utan's habitat (as mentioned before, none exist in Sarawak). They simply got bad geography and actually meant Central Kalimantan, where they are hunted as pests to prevent them eating palm seedlings!

Even though Sarawak does not have Orang Utan, we're still part of that Borneo, the island we share with the Orang Utans. It is this island that not only are they killing Orang Utans mercilessly, but deforestation and irresponsible field burning adds to not only the Orang Utan's demise, but probably ours very soon as well. Suddenly the border dividing Sarawak and Kalimantan becomes meaningless.

Please help spread the awareness, especially to our young children, so they'll grow up with this in mind, possibly even changing our world and treatment towards animals for the better in the future. The future lies in their hands, because the current generation of humans are such screw-ups when it comes to awareness of endangered animals.

To learn more about Orang Utans, please see the reference links

The News Article

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orangutan

http://www.orangutanprotection.com/

http://www.savetheorangutan.org/