Govt: Rain, not deforestation, caused wood debris near Kenyir
What looked like a sea of floating logs near Kenyir Lake was a result of heavy rain and not deforestation in the area, the state government said.
Terengganu Menteri Besar Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar said heavy rain caused land slippage, which dragged down wood debris to Sungai Terengganu, located downstream of Kenyir Lake.
He said investigations found no evidence of...
What looked like a sea of floating logs near Kenyir Lake was a result of heavy rain and not deforestation in the area, the state government said.
Terengganu Menteri Besar Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar (above) said heavy rain caused land slippage, which dragged down wood debris to Sungai Terengganu, located downstream of Kenyir Lake.
He said investigations found no evidence of logging in the area, as implied in a short video which went viral on social media.
The landslide, which brought down wood and plant debris, was caused by five days of consecutive heavy rain reaching 1000mm, from Feb 23 to 27, he said in a statement.
He said the slippage involved land an estimated 100m in length, 50m in width and about five to 10m in thickness.
This led to a flow of debris from the hilltop all the way to Sungai Terengganu some 300m away, he said.
“I hope this statement will clarify the issue which has been circulating on social media in the past couple of days,” he said.
Earlier, a 30-second video showing fire and rescue personnel in a boat crossing a body of water filled with wood debris went viral on social media.
The footage showed the signage for Kenyir Lake in the background.
Kenyir Lake is an artificial lake in Hulu Terengganu created by the Kenyir Dam, also known as the Sultan Mahmud Hydroelectric Dam.
Among those who shared the video on social media was environmentalist Sharifah Sabrina Syed Akil.
“I can only watch as disaster after disaster unfolds. Sad,” she wrote in the Facebook post’s caption, which was shared 2,400 times.
Yesterday, Telemong state assemblyperson Rozi Mamat raised concern over what he believed were “thousands of logs” in Kenyir Lake.
Calling for a probe, the Hulu Terengganu Umno chief said this is an issue because the area is a no-logging zone.
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