Poultry farmers travel far in search of water

Stark contrast: Shahnur showing the difference in colour between tap water (left) and the water he took from rivers and ponds at Kampung Tuan Sheh in Kota Tinggi, Johor.

KOTA TINGGI: Kota Tinggi folk are forced to travel as far as 20km to get water to meet their daily needs during the water rationing period in the district.

Poultry farmer Maiswan Musta­jab, 51, said since the rationing exercise began last month, he and his workers had been looking for water to keep his chickens alive and losses at a minimum.

He said since April 19, about 10,000 of his 25,000 chickens had died due to the lack of water and that it was hard to keep them alive as 10,000 gallons of water was needed each day.

“So, we would drive around to look for any possible water sources such as rivers, canals and also wells to keep my chickens alive,” he said, adding that his farm in Kampung Tuan Sheh had been operating since 1993.

Another farmer, Shahnur Nazri, 30, who has about 90,000 chickens, said he even woke up as early as 5.30am to beat others for water at the Teluk Mahkota canal, about 2km from his farm.

“I was only able to retrieve water from the canal for two days (April 19 and 20) as a lot of people went there for the same purpose, which caused the supply to deplete.

“So, now I have to travel about 6km to a pond in Jalan Semangga,” he added.

Shahnur said he also sought help from others to obtain RM4,500 litres of water from SAJ Holdings by paying a RM150 transportation charge per trip.

So far, he has paid four times since the rationing exercise started.

Bus driver Hussin Salleh, 65, said although the water supply taken from the nearby canal and well tasted funny, he could not do much as those were his only options apart from buying mineral water.

“Luckily it is not smelly, so I can still use it for washing and bathing because my family and I use the water supply given by SAJ for cooking and drinking,” he added.

Farmer Turino Mat Mustam, 48, complained that SAJ had not been following its every-two-day sche­dule when supplying water to his area and that taps had been dry for six days since the supply truck came.

“This has made our lives more difficult as I had to drive some 6km just to look for water and even bathed at a nearby canal and pond,” he said.

When contacted, State Health and Environment Exco Datuk Ayub Rahmat said the water taken from rivers, canals and wells should be safe for use if it was not contamina­ted by any chemical or poison.

“Even the state government encourages the people to use water supply from canals and wells and to practise rain harvesting, especially during water rationing or dry spells,” he said, adding that the public could always call the Health Department to analyse the water quality if they were unsure.

The water rationing period began on April 18 and is scheduled to go on until May 15. Until then, water supply is cut off for two days before resuming for a day.