It is very disturbing to learn about a new shrimp farming project in Setiu, Terengganu that is located in a Rank 1 Environmentally Sensitive Area as identified by our National Physical Plan.

The proponent, a private aqua-culture developer, boasts that the project is ‘eco-friendly’ and ‘sustainable’. Ecologists deem it to be neither.

The gelam tree forests found in the project site are a highly-threatened freshwater ecosystem. The project will cause 700 hectares of these forests to be cleared. While this is already a disturbed forest, it continues to provide vital ecosystem services such as flood mitigation.

Further, the brackish effluent that will be discharged from the ponds to Sungai Chaluk will upset its freshwater ecosystem. Among other species, the critically endangered river and painted terrapins inhabit the area.

A virus outbreak in the aqua-culture ponds can pose yet another great risk to the endemic species in the receiving waters of the effluent.

The developer’s plan to market the shrimps in world markets as ‘eco-friendly’ can only result in a bad name for Malaysia.