Rumour has it that Mersing has gold lining its shores, and this is partially true. Local towns people have often found small flecks of gold on the beaches of Mersing. Local visitors can sometimes spot small children on the beach panning for thin flakes of gold using shallow pie tins.
It is one thing for an intrepid treasure hunter to find gold on the beaches of Mersing, but it is another for a commercial enterprise to dig up our beach land, and taint our food supply as a result of illegal gold mining.
Typically, commercial gold mining usually makes use of MERCURY, which very often leaches into our water supply, and therefore into our food supply. Mercury poisoning is insidious, and results in brain damage, deformity, and loss of motor control.
It has come to our attention that a gentleman , En Fitri, from Kuala Lumpur has been mining gold illegally along the coast in Mersing. Unfortunately he has been using mercury, and runoff from his operation has shown mercury levels as high as 16 TIMES the allowable levels.
For many citizens of Mersing, we depend on the sea for our food, and we really cannot do anything about mercury poisoning unless we stop these illegal activities. For more information, please go to http://sites.google.com/site/toxicgold/
If you are concerned, please help by contacting land office in Mersing (Pejabat Tanah Daerah), the District Officer and the Department of Health.
5 comments:
for sure mercury is a terrible element to have in a food source. especially here where the consumption is (happily) not under heavy regulation. it is constant trend but a horrible shame how often one may try to profit by exploiting a common resource. it is especially a shame in this case where it leads to toxic content in the ocean and VERY likely toxic content in consumers and children. children get effected by high levels of chemicals much more dramatically as their bodies are smaller so the element cannot dissipate. is there any legal enforcement taking place to protect against this gold mining?
The mersing land office has been contacted as well as the jabatan parit and saliran (JPS). Unfortunately although they are mining on the beach reserve, JPS has no enforcement capability and its left to the land office.
This is so well written, commendations for this piece.
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Any developments for this issue? Are the beaches of sekakap safe again?
Interresting thoughts
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