Wednesday, April 7, 2010

BENDING NATURE TOO MUCH

Human beings are very fond of bending nature to suit his never-ending wants.
In so doing, they sometimes go overboard and nature is bent beyond repair or almost so.

This is what happening to Aral sea, one of the world's largest lake. The lake has shrunk 90% since 1960's.

Why? Hands of human beings have diverted much of its water to the neighbouring dry land for planting cotton!

If you happen to visit the area, you will see many fishing boats lying idle on vast area of sand. Economic activities, especially fishing, in the lake completely stopped.

It is said that the sand dust has been reported to have travelled over long distances to far-away places as far as Scandinavia and Japan.

See what power, greed and gross lack of understanding how nature works will lead to disaster.

Still remember my late grandma's words: "Swamps are natural air-conditioners; Hills and mountains anchor the world and protect us from strong wind...Why then should we destroy them in pursuit of development?"

Driving up Bukit Kijal hill was something that I looked forward back then. The fantastic picture-frame scene of the azure sea lined by swaying coconut trees as we reached the top could not be found anywhere else.

But then came the idea to move the road to the present site so that heavy lorries did not have to crawl up the steep road to pass the hill. Many thought that the crawl was nothing compared to the pleasure of the scenery.

As the result, the newly resort built on the way up the hill suffered its untimely demise. So too were memories of the hanging picture!

Now Kemaman folks were busy talking about the new high curving bridge over the river near Bukit Kuang. It is supposed to start from the traffic light near SMKSI and ends near Bukit Kuang Petronas station, so I was told.

With the new bridge, may be, much of the original Bukit Kuang will disappear from the map. I am not sure, but I guess my parents' as well as my sisters' houses will have to move too. Where to? I don't know.

Back to the bridge, it is indeed high time for a new bridge, but why the design? Will it not be too costly for just a bridge? The curve is said to allow yachts and ships to pass underneath it. What yachts? What ships?

2 comments:

Martin Lee said...

The same thing happened near the Taman Perwaja close to INTAN. The range of the hill was cut into two portions because of development to make way for housing project. The habitat was divided and animals are expected only to move across during night time when there are no cars or no humans? I was telling my friend, if the hill or mountain is still intact, all those areas would be protected from any possible Tsunami from South China sea.

Cannot understand why a big INTAN building is built and hardly being used but cordoned off a significant portion of the prime land and good scenery of Mak Nik beach!

azahar said...

A little correction Lee...INTAN is being used for in-house training of govt officers. I learned a lot from INTAN when I first started working in Terengganu way back in 82