KUCHING, March 15: The Sarawak government through Forest Department Sarawak (FDS) today has appointed Harwood Timber Sdn Bhd as the contractor to clear floating timber debris obstructing Baleh River, Kapit.
The clean-up will take about a year beginning today.
FDS director Datu Hamden Mohammad and Harwood Timber Sdn Bhd general manager Zainal Abidin Abdullah represented the parties involved at the signing and handover of Service Agreement Document ceremony.
The logjam incident in Baleh River has attracted a lot of attention and drawn criticism from the public and various quarters especially from the late former Sarawak Deputy Chief Minister and former Baleh assemblyman Tan Sri Dr James Jemut Masing.
The news of the mass of floating wood debris in Baleh River was reportedly caused by heavy rain on the night of Aug 20, 2021 which washed down accumulated wood debris at the Baleh Hydroelectric Project (HEP) dam site.
Images of the logjam shared online showed the river being blocked by floating debris stretching as far as the eye can see, and piling up on riverbanks. — DayakDaily
