SIKUATI: SBH Kibing Silicon Materials Sdn Bhd, a company extracting silica sand here to supply its manufacturing plant at KKIP in Kota Kinabalu, has been accused by some in social media of polluting the Bangau Beach with “blackish water”.
According to its Public Relations Director Evelyn June Charlie JP, the company which is still busily engrossed with finishing contracting its processing facilities here, was concerned with the allegations, particularly that of former Senator Adrian Banie Lasimbang.
Evelyn organised a fact-finding tour for the mainstream media to investigate the allegations which were already probed and dismissed by the Sabah Environment Protection Association (Sepa) and Environment Protection Agency (EPA).
A visit to the Bangau Beach site found no oil, obnoxious smelling chemical or effluent pollutants and that the blackish water residues are from organic material from the peat land composition, a natural phenomenon that local villagers who have resided in the area have known and are accustomed to.
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Saridah binti Zakaria, 63, and Lina binti Maidal, 36, explained that the peat land was subjected to fire outbreaks and that there was a salt processing plant in the past that used bakau wood as charcoal to fuel their drying or evaporating processing the salt.
The black top soil and the subsoil decomposing vegetation material also colour the water runoff in heavy rainfall downpour that floods the drainage system and discharges into the South China Sea via the beach.
SBH Kibing Silicon Materials Sdn Bhd Public Relations Manager Fred Nee said:
“We are not asking you to be biased for SBH Kibing, but to report what you see here today. We need all the water, including rainwater for our company’s processes.
“We do not discharge any water outside of our site. We reprocess and reuse all our water for our needs.”
At the office briefing, Fred Nee also showed Google maps photographs of past years before Kibang set up its processing plant here that showed the rivers discharging blackish water to the sea that the social media postings failed to disclose to the public.
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