Ong Han Sean The Star 14 Aug 12;
PEKAN: The lotus flowers of Tasik Chini should be blooming this month but except for a few stalks, none can be seen on the waters of the lake.
Orang asli community leader Tok Batin Awang Alok blamed the demise of the once beautiful attraction of Malaysia's second largest freshwater lake on unchecked development around the area.
“The lake used to be so beautiful. Then, they put up a dam over 10 years ago and now the entire ecosystem is affected. Not to mention the iron mine which just opened nearby recently and the rampant logging all over the hills,” he said in an interview at Kampung Gumum near the lake here yesterday.
Sediment from the mine flowing into the lake could not be drained out because of the dam at Chini River, claimed Awang.
“The lake was so clear in my grandparents' days that we could even see the bottom.
“Now, it is so muddy and filled with ekor kucing (a type of water weed). We cannot find several species of fish any longer,” he said.
The 71-year-old said tourists would not return to Tasik Chini since there was now nothing to see after the lotus flowers stopped growing two years ago.
There are five orang asli villages comprising some 500 Jakun and Semelai people around the 12 lakes that make up Tasik Chini.
They recently set up an action committee to demand that the Government restore the lake and gazette the land around it as orang asli territory.
