Council to tackle issue
KUCHING: Padawan Municipal Council (MPP) has promised to deal with the problem of poultry farms becoming a nuisance at Jalan Rundim 3B near Kampung Quop here.
Chairman Lo Khere Chiang said MPP is in the process of working with other relevant agencies such as the Veterinary Department and Natural Resources Environment Board (NREB) to find a solution.
“MPP does not have absolute power to determine or to move poultry and pig farms to alternative land and sites.
“However, MPP will work with the Land and Survey Department (Jupem), Department of Environment, the NREB to find an amicable solution to this issue,” he said.
Lo explained that Jupem is the authority to determine available land or alternative sites to relocate such activities.
“MPP only has by-laws regarding nuisance that may be applicable to such circumstances.
“MPP will do its best to address this issue by working together with the relevant authorities in the interest of our community as commercial and housing development has rendered animal farming in the vicinity unsuitable and needs to be relocated,” said the Batu Kitang assemblyman.
Residents at Jalan Rundim recently cried foul over poultry farms in the vicinity, saying they were getting bigger and closer to them, and becoming a nuisance and health hazard.
One such farm, with approximately 10 chicken coops, is located in Jalan Rundim, and residents have been living next to it for nearly 30 years.
Complaints and letters to the poultry farm operator and local authority had gone unheeded — even the Village Development and Security Committee (JKKK) seemed powerless in the matter.
According to a long-suffering resident, the farm was not only a nuisance but also a health hazard.
Randet Sebar said large numbers of flies would converge on his house, landing on everything from cooking utensils to food.
Residents there had to constantly keep their doors and windows closed to prevent the flies and rancid smell from coming into their homes.
They, according to the resident, had been plagued by this for the past 20 over years.
He said stray dogs would occasionally feed on chicken carcasses that were not properly disposed of by the farm workers.
George Young Si Ricord Jr, president of NGO Habitat for Indigenous and Urban Programme, who visited the site at the request of the residents, said the chicken farms are indeed getting too close to their homes.
He urged local authorities to monitor the air quality near this particular farm, and that of other farms sprouting all over Kampung Quop.
He pointed out that poultry farms should be set up away from residential areas, and something had to be done fast to solve the matter.
