National Service Training Department officers have allayed the fear of parents over a leptospirosis-contaminated pond at a training camp in Sibu, saying the pond has been closed and care will be taken in the use of other ponds for water activities.

Khiu Siong Hii, the operator of the Junaco Park National Service Training Camp in Ulu Oya Road, said the contaminated pond was closed on Jan 10 this year and water activities had been switched to another 12 ponds in the area.

The contaminated pond was in a secluded spot, two kilometres from the nearest one, he told a news conference at his office in Sibu today.

Khiu said he was informed of the contamination by the divisional health office after its officers had taken water samples for analysis in December last year.

"There is no need for the parents of the 226 trainees still undergoing training there and members of the public to be unduly alarmed," he said.

National Service Training Department director-general Abdul Hadi Awang Kechil said in Kuching that none of the trainees or the workers of the camp had been infected by the virus of what is also known as rat urine disease.

Khiu said: "We have, since January, shifted all water activities to the other ponds. But for now, all such activities have been stopped due to the (Ramadan) fasting month. The trainees are now doing their theoretical sessions in air-conditioned classrooms," he said.

Remedial treatment

He said the affected pond was being subjected to remedial treatment, and one method was to release 100,000 fish fry into the pond and dumping in huge quantities of coarse salt.

Abdul Hadi said in a statement that the department would collaborate with the Health Ministry to determine the quality of water in the ponds.

Khiu said he suspected the source of the bacteria to be three horses which used to graze by the pond, and added that they had been sent away.

The Sibu Division Health Office said in a statement yesterday that the leptospirosis bacteria had been detected at the Jalan Permai recreational lake and a pond at the national service training camp, and that both the lake and pond had been closed.

The leptospirosis scare first emerged in early July following the death of eight people who had participated in a search-and-rescue operation in the Lubuk Yu recreational forest in Maran, Pahang.

Last Saturday, Health Minister Liow Tiong Lai instructed every district health officer to monitor recreational areas, particularly camping sites, as a precaution against spread of the disease.

- Bernama