A STAGGERING 961 instances of forest, peat, bush and farm fires have been reported in Sabah between January 1 and March 14 due to an extended period of hot and dry weather exacerbated by the El Nino phenomenon.
Statistics released by the Sabah Fire and Rescue Department revealed Tuaran as the most affected district, reporting 207 incidents, followed by Kota Belud and Kota Kinabalu with 136 and 90 incidents respectively over the same period.
Numerous fires were also recorded in Lintas (75 cases), Penampang (60), Papar (50), Kuala Penyu (56) and Kimanis (55), the department said.
Two instances of heat exhaustion were documented by the Sabah Health Department, both occurring in Beaufort, between January and March 12, amid the ongoing drought in the region.
The initial incident involved a man experiencing heat exhaustion while cutting a tree, and the subsequent case involved a man engaged in a game of football.
In Papar, district disaster committee has declared a drought disaster. About 56,000 residents are expected to experience shortage of water supply there.
One of the district’s treatment plants stopped operating since last month after water levels from a local river decreased, causing saline intrusion from the nearby sea.
The government has not declared a statewide drought crisis, but the authorities already anticipate that the drought will affect food security and production.
State Agriculture and Food Industries Minister Datuk Seri Jeffrey Kitingan said the scarcity of rainfall and rising temperatures have led to reduction of river levels by between 10% and 40%.
“A comprehensive assessment, gathered from various departments and agencies under my ministry indicates that the dry weather has significantly affected the agricultural sector in multiple ways.
“These include reduced water levels for irrigation, hindered crop growth due to decreased rainfall, and the potential risk of decreased livestock productivity due to feed scarcity,” he said in Kota Kinabalu yesterday.
Most Sabah rivers have experienced a lowering of water levels, significantly affecting supplies for irrigation.
An assessment conducted by departments and agencies under Kitingan's ministry revealed a widespread impact on the agricultural sector.
Several areas have been critically affected, including Kota Belud, Keningau, Membakut, Tambunan and Kota Marudu where rainfall reached a paltry 80mm in January and February.
“There has also been a halt in new rubber plantings, a slowdown in fertilisation activities, and reduced tapping in extremely dry plantation areas to mitigate the risk of tree mortality,” he said.
Water reserves depleting fast
Jeffrey said several approaches have been suggested to mitigate the situation. One plan is to halt certain activities like rubber production.
The focus is on maintenance works, water rationing and deployment of mobile pumps to ensure adequate supply for irrigation.
Sabah Works Minister Datuk Shahelmy Yahya had said in late February that the state still has reserves to last for three months to deal with the prolonged drought.
“Rationing and proposed water conservation will be done if the condition worsens,” he said.
Sabah has requested cloud seeding programmes to be carried out to replenish its reserves and deal with the wildfires across the state.
State secretary Datuk Seri Safar Untong said an official request has been made to the National Disaster Management Agency (Nadma). The government hopes that the operation will be done this week.
Sabah has been seeing less rainfall due to the El Nino phenomenon and the condition is expected to continue until May.
Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd had also rationed power supplies in 14 districts, including the Federal Territory of Labuan to ensure stable electricity during the hot weather.
The Energy Commission of Sabah (ECoS) has urged large-scale power consumers to activate their own generators and participate in the Demand Side Management (DSM) programme to reduce the burden on the state’s power grids.
“The DSM programme has been activated several times so far after the generator sets at a major power plant were temporarily on outage for planned maintenance that could no longer be postponed.
“The outage will continue until the end of the month,” said its chief executive officer Datuk Abdul Nasser Abdul Wahid.
“Incidents like this are expected to continue until the end of this year due to the low reserve margin caused by lack of generation capacity in the Sabah grid.” – The Vibes, March 15, 2024
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