As the state government struggles to stem public speculation by claiming that investigation of its causes was proceeding, the logjam on the Rajang and Baleh rivers in Sarawak continued to engender theories of its origins.

Deputy Chief Minister George Chan yesterday blamed fast water currents for damaging two bridges and five jetties at the Malataiheli logging camp in the Baleh area, thus holding out for the theory that heavy rain and rising water levels was the main culprit.

However, he did not rule out the possibility that a combination of factors could have caused the disaster.

NONE Last Thursday's massive logjam, reputed to be 50km long at one stretch between Kapit and Kanowit, virtually brought river transport to a halt in the region.

Besides, scores of longhouses along the banks had to go without harvesting stocks of fish in the Baleh and Rajang rivers, thus depriving residents of subsistence income and protein for their families.

Chan had estimated losses at RM2.7 million, but this figure was pooh-poohed by critics who claimed the losses suffered by logging companies, fishermen and owners of riverine craft would cumulatively be much higher.        

Inevitably, speculation among people in downriver towns like Sibu about the actual cause of the logjam was at variance to the ostensible theory floated by official quarters.

‘Log-ponds’

George Chen, a fertiliser merchant in Lanang, the area adjacent to Sibu, said that landslides at Kutai in the upper reaches of the Baleh river had caused logs stored in what are called ‘log-ponds' to roll down the banks and inundate the Baleh river.

A ‘log-pond' is a huge stockpile of old logs that are not immediately marketable and left to accumulate in a gigantic storage area.

According to Chen, ‘log-ponds' near Kutai which is on the slope of the Crocker range of mountains that constitutes the Sarawak border with Indonesian Kalimantan, had been building up over 10 years.    

Chen, who sells fertiliser to plantation companies in the upper  reaches of the Rajang, said landslides unleashed the stockpile at the ‘log-pond' into the Baleh river, causing it to be timber-logged.

azlan He said the problem was compounded by the deluge of massive stocks of adhesive glue that were swept down by the landslide from huge plywood factories in the same area.

"The adhesive glue caused fish in the Baleh and Rajang rivers to surface from suffocation," he said.

"Their gills were seen to be covered by a sticky coat of the adhesive glue used in plywood manufacture," he said.

Landslides

Sibu resident Wong Lieng Kui, 70, who is familiar with the area in the upper reaches of the Rajang which is Malaysia's longest river, concurred that the logjam was caused by landslides due to excessive logging in the area off the Baleh river near the Crocker mountain range.

Wong, a member of the communist North Kalimantan People's Army between 1963 to 1990, when the NKPA formalised a peace pact with the Malaysian government, said he was familiar with the area.

"The area was blanketed by forests during the time when we hid out in it but over the last two decades, the logging companies have stripped it of its cover," said the man, who a leader in the once 1,000-strong band of militant communists who scoured the region for safe havens from which to stage attacks on government security forces.

"The rains would have triggered landslides such that the old and unwanted stockpile of logs would have been swept down to the rivers and clogged them," he offered.

"This was a disaster waiting to happen. I pity the poor people living off the affected rivers' banks," said Wong.

Overall, speculation on the probable causes of the logjam has reinforced mounting perceptions among ordinary people that the state government has been grossly negligent of the environment by permitting excessive logging and plantation agriculture.