Clean up Pangkor

Zeeneeshri, The New Straits Times 13 Jun 09;

R. ZEENEESHRI tags along with a group of students who learnt the importance of marine conservation

CHONG Kin Lam expressed his disgust with the sanitary conditions at Pulau Pangkor in two words: “Smelly la!”

An unpleasant whiff may well be the only thing the 19-year-old and a group of KDU College students took home after their visit to the island recently.

The Diploma in International Hotel and Tourism Management students’ marine conservation field trip gave them an insight into the poorly maintained facilities at the boat-making and fishing villages, snorkelling spots and eateries.

“Pangkor is a very natural island but the authorities need to improve its public facilities if they want to maintain the flow of tourists,” says Chong, adding that a good start would be to have proper toilets along the beaches.
“Taxis at the island do not want to take passengers who are wet but there are no restrooms for tourists to change,” he says.

Student Tung Mei Gee, 18, says the island authorities should improve their rubbish disposal.

“The locals seem ignorant about the pollution that they are creating.

“Businesses by the beach need to care for it instead of polluting it with rubbish. We found an abandoned boat by the beach that was filled with water and garbage. Just imagine it as a breeding haven for mosquitoes,” she adds.

The tourist attractions that the group visited included the Pasir Panjang Segari Turtle Sanctuary, Lumut mangrove swamp, the Dutch Fort and Coral Island off Pangkor.

Nkosana Ncube, 21, from Zimbabwe, feels Pangkor has the potential to be the next Caribbean but is failing in its hygiene.

“It is a beautiful island but it is poorly maintained. It needs to be developed — European-style,” he says, adding that the transportation system is poor.

“Boats that were taking tourists to neighbouring islands for snorkelling were overloaded with people. It is sad that when something bad happens, such as if a boat overturns, will they think of changing their mindset.”

Nkosana says people in Pangkor do not speak much English so his local friends acted as translators.

Raising the sanitary standards and promotion of the island’s attractions should help increase the number of tourists, he adds.

“The taxi and boat drivers should be educated in marine conservation and English, so they can guide professionally. You need to be knowledgeable if you want to promote tourism,” he says.

“People here are not exposed to a clean and professional environment. I think in years to come, pollution will kill this place if things don’t change.

“At the boat-making area, things were floating in the water. From steel and wood to odds and ends, waste was strewn all over the shore as well as bobbing in the water.

“Their toilet is a sight to remember — it consists of a hole in the ground so that waste falls into the sea. There is no water, tissue or sewerage system.

“There’s nothing wrong with Pangkor, it’s just that the locals are not educated enough on pollution,” says Nkosana.

Lecturer and academic advisor Anand Raj Supramaniam was happy that his students experienced the unpleasantness as it probably gave them more points to ponder for their assignments.

Anand says there is obvious resort development in Pangkor but the marine conservation can be improved.

“The locals must be willing to change. When they are ready, then education can come into the picture.

“If we have a healthy and clean environment, we can build up tourism. And with a place such as Pangkor which depends on its surroundings for tourism, the Marine Department plays a vital role in ensuring the conservation and preservation of the sea, beach and land.

“For instance, the boat village was polluting the sea. I’m sure this is a prolonged act. Self-economy was taken into consideration, but environment was neglected. People there thought only of producing important materials and whatever they contributed to the sea was irrelevant.”

Concurring with him, student Nicole June Paul, 18, says people on the island were not thinking of the consequences of their actions.

“The entire sea is connected,” she says, “if one part is polluted, then the other section will also be, sooner or later, slowly but surely.

“During our snorkelling trip, the guide found a plastic bag in the water. He caught a fish with the bag and he threw the bag back into the water.

“I was thinking where did the bag come from? And if rubbish was so ‘easily available’ we can only imagine how much more we have not seen.”

Nicole says her visit to Pangkor made her realise that there are parts of Malaysia that are underdeveloped.

Travelling to Lumut and Pangkor has exposed her and her fellow classmates to a side of Malaysia outside of urban Kuala Lumpur.

She thinks that the upgrading of sanitary conditions on the island needs to be done before promotion of the island’s heritage would boost tourism there.

Anand says Pangkor need not be as developed as other parts of the country to attract tourists but certain measures must be taken.

The challenge for his students would be to come up with a way to improve the sanitation and promote tourism on the island while preserving the local identities.

The students’ assignments require them to make a study of the environment, give an overall view of the past and present and come up with a proposal for the future.

The proposals would then be vetted by the lecturer-in-charge and then sent to the relevant tourism board for its evaluation.

“We are not forcefully telling them that these (proposals) are things they need to follow,” says Anand.

The proposals are recommendations that the students make based on their observations during their study trip.