JOHOR BARU: The waterfall at the Gunung Pulai Recreational Forest has been ordered to close for two weeks from Friday (May 19) after an 18-year-old boy died from leptospirosis or rat urine disease.
State Health, Environment, Education and Information committee chairman Datuk Ayub Rahmat said the closure until June 1 was necessary for investigations to be carried out.
“We have yet to get results from the water samples taken from the picnic and waterfall areas in Gunung Pulai 1," he said in a statement on Friday.
Ayub said the move was a precautionary measure to ensure that visitors were not exposed to bacteria as the surrounding areas were found to be dirty.
He said the victim from Pekan Nanas, Pontian, died on Friday after he was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit of Hospital Sultanah Aminah for three days.
The victim went for a swim at the waterfall last month and suffered from stomach ache, flu and fever for three days. His internal organs failed to function.
"I would like to advise those who visited the Gunung Pulai waterfall and picnic areas in April and May this year to go for medical check-up immediately," he said.
Gunung Pulai is a 654m-high hill near Kulai, and easily reached by the North South Expressway after exiting the Kulai toll plaza.
It is a popular picnic spot and jungle trekking among locals and Singaporeans.
The waterfall picnic area at the park was closed for three months from October to December 2015 after water samples tested positive for leptospirosis.
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