GEORGE TOWN – Residents around the popular tourist attraction Pantai Esen in Batu Maung are demanding that the developer of the Silicon Island reclamation project deliver their promise of cleaning up unusual levels of silt on the shoreline, ruining the beach’s charm.
Locals approached by Scoop urged the developer to commit to pumping out the thick silt layer, claiming that the ongoing reclamation works off the coast of the beach contribute to the problem.
Deep-sea fisherman Mohd Khairi Mohd Yussoff, 34, and canoe operator Muhammad Amin Abdul Majid, 27, said residents were told that the developer promised to clean up the coastline using a suction dredger back in February.
While suction dredging works were carried out, Khairi they were done on the side of the reclaimed land which faces the open sea instead of the beach, which he deemed “unnecessary”.
However, it has been months since the promise was made, and both Khairi and Amin are frustrated with the lack of progress.
“This reclamation project is said to be completed in 2032, but we have no idea if it could be done by that year.
“Are we supposed to wait up to 20 years (for the work to be done)?” Khairi told Scoop, adding that he hopes for the works to be completed by December.
Income decline
As the residents rely on the seafood-rich fishing areas at the bay where the beach is located and tourism, the silt problem has taken a toll on their income. Besides impacting fishermen, it has also deterred tourists who usually visit to enjoy the view or ride ATVs along a route leading up to the beach.
Khairi revealed that before the reclamation works, his daily catch would be worth up to RM400. Nowadays, the amount has declined as he said the marine population has reduced.
Meanwhile, buggy cart and quad bike operator Izham Yusri, 24, told Scoop that the decline in the number of tourists visiting the beach has led to a sharp decline in revenue, revealing that he could only make around RM20 per day.
“Sometimes, we would earn that much money after two days, unlike in the past where we could earn up to RM400 daily during the weekdays and RM2,000 daily during weekends,” he lamented.
Meanwhile, Izham’s colleague who preferred to be known as Iqmal, revealed that visitors who have booked quad bikes in advance would cancel their reservations and request refunds upon learning that the beach is smelly and polluted with silt.
“We have also experienced tourists calling us to fetch them from the beach, just five minutes after they were dropped there, as they could not stand the smell,” he added.
Amin, meanwhile, said his canoe trips reduced from six to seven times per day to just three in recent months.
“I really hope that (the developer) can do something about this (pollution) problem,” he said.
Silt could be removed with uninterrupted waves
Khairi and Zakaria Ismail, the head of the Sg Batu fishermen unit in Bayan Lepas, said that while silt deposits have always been present at the bay’s coastline for decades, they did not emit a foul smell and would usually be swept away by strong waves.
However, the reclamation site has blocked the waves, making the waves weaker as they hit the shore, causing silt deposits to accumulate and thicken over time.
Zakaria, a known critic of the Silicon Island project and its predecessor Penang South Islands, said that he had long predicted the current silt problem in the bay due to the reclamation project, even before it commenced in September last year.
“I expect this problem to get worse as more land is being reclaimed (over time), followed by more silt, which would eventually reach Sg Batu’s (shores in Bayan Lepas) as well,” he told Scoop when contacted.
Last month, Scoop reported fishermen from Sg Batu as calling for the artificial island project to be temporarily halted as they suspected that it has contributed to an “unusually high” level of muddy pollution involving loose sediment deposits at the Sg Batu coast.
The 2,300-acre island project would cover half of the southern coast of Penang island, from Batu Maung to Bayan Lepas upon completion.
The project is under the supervision of the state-formed special-purpose vehicle. Penang Infrastructure Corporation, which oversees all mega infrastructure projects in the state.
Its CEO Datuk Seri Farizan Darus was recently reported as saying that he has instructed officers from the Fishermen’s One Stop Service Centre to closely monitor the silt pollution situation at Pantai Esen.
According to the News Straits Times, Farizan also said that the corporation was consulting experts, including environmental impact assessment specialists involved in reclamation studies, to gain insights into the cause of the phenomenon. – October 27, 2024