Thursday, August 07, 2008

Welcome To Mulu

More than 15 years ago, there was also about this same kind of project to recycle waste etc etc at Taman Negara, Kuala Tahan. Do you know what happen now? It was abandoned. (You can still see the remains of this project at Taman Negara Resort) So all this project is just hangat-hangat tahi ayam (hot-hot chicken shit). Just to spend money and publicity? There are no commitment to protect nature. This is ecotourism. Hell!
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NST Online
2008/08/06
Mulu visitors pile up a stinker
By : Desmond Davidson

KUCHING: Gunung Mulu national park, the crown jewel of Sarawak tourism, is developing a smelly problem.

The Unesco World Heritage site in northern Sarawak, renowned for its ancient limestone caves, is facing difficulty in disposing of solid waste left by human visitors, and this is causing concern.

The problem stems from the area's lack of a local council, which also means there are no waste collection and disposal services available.

This is compounded by the fact that the administrator of the park, the Sarawak Fores- try Corporation, and the operators of chalets and hotels in the area, are prohibited, by both environmental and national park laws, from disposing of their solid waste by burning, or creating a landfill or dump site.

"It's a serious problem. But we are looking for a solution," said Natural Resources and Environmental Board (NREB) assistant controller Peter Sawal yesterday.

The national park generates just under a tonne of solid waste a day, with the Royal Mulu Resort generating the bulk of it at 400kg.

Solid wastes were once shipped out by boat to Marudi, but as the shipping contractor charged between RM1,800 to RM2,800 a month, that disposal solution became too expensive.

The effort to save costs has led some to indiscriminately dump waste on open ground just behind the resort.

Sawal said a jointly-developed NREB and Japan International Corporation Agency (JICA) solution is currently undergoing trials at Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Siburan, a school on the outskirts of the city along the Kuching-Serian Road.

A professor from Japan's Meisei University, Shuji Yoshizawa, is fine-tuning his new composting technique, which he successfully developed from recycling food wastes and non-revenue generating wastes like cardboard boxes and animal waste.

"If successful, this composting technique will be implemented at Mulu," Sawal said.

The trial was meant to be sited in Mulu, but logistical problems forced it to be held nearer here.

The school, which has a student population of over 2,000, of which 429 are boarders, was picked as the trial site because it generates the same amount of solid waste as the Royal Mulu Resort.

The trial and Yoshizawa's working paper are expected to be completed in two months.

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