KUCHING, August 31: The Balui Lake Native Association (BLNA) wants the State Agriculture Department to intervene and allow the Sg Asap resettlers to carry out aquaculture activities in Bakun Lake.
According to BLNA chairman Pemanca Tony Kulleh, the Inland Fisheries Department had informed them, that they were not allowed to participate in aquaculture activities in the lake without giving any concrete reason.
“As the chairman of BLNA, I am very disappointed with the Inland Fisheries Department for not allowing us to participate in aquaculture activities in Bakun Lake. After all, how else can we improve our economy if we are not allowed to carry out such activities?” he asked.
Tony said they were making arrangements to meet up with Deputy Chief Minister and Minister of Modernization of Agriculture, Native Land and Regional Development Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas to intervene on their behalf.
“We want to appeal to the deputy chief minister to allow us to rear fish in Bakun Lake as we don’t have enough land for farming and doing other agriculture activities,” he said.
He pointed out that they had been asking for extra land for farming beside the three acres allocated per family when they just moved to Sg Asap more than two decades ago.
“If we have to wait for the extra land it might not materialize during our lifetime. So we have to do something else and we have identified aquaculture as the right agriculture activity which all of us can venture into. After all the Bakun Lake is so massive,” he said. — DayakDaily
