FISHERMEN in Teluk Kertang near Taiping, who have been facing difficulty steering their boats out to sea due to shallow Sungai Larut, can stop worrying now.

The state Drainage and Irrigation Department has agreed to assign a contractor to deepen the river at a cost of RM700,000.

State DID director Datuk Abdul Razak Dahalan said the project, due to commence next year, would initially be confined to the river mouth.

“Over the years, fishing trawlers have often been stuck, especially during low tide because of silt and we have called for tenders,” he told reporters after opening a workshop for river rangers in Kuala Kangsar recently.

Abdul Razak (in blue) showing participants of the river ranger workship samples taken from the Perak River.

Abdul Razak said the project was important because other tributaries meandering around the Larut Matang and Selama districts ended up in Sungai Larut.

“The river deepening project will be extended upstream when we have additional allocation,” he added.

In May, a local businessman Oh Seok Oon, who runs a fleet of fishing trawler boats, had offered to fork out his own money to Kuala Sepetang assemblyman Tai Sing Ng to undertake the task of deepening the river.

About 70 fishing trawler owners have also complained that they incurred additional cost when they had to berth their boats away from the river mouth and assign smaller boats to collect their catch and this was time-consuming.

Abdul Razak also said the department had also spent about RM1mil recently to deepen Sungai Tupai which had been blamed for a spate of flash floods in and around Taiping in June.

He added that the Perak Government had recently approved RM3mil to the department to enable it to deepen several other rivers including Sungai Bidor in Tapah.

On another issue, he said 21 teachers had been chosen to participate in the river ranger workshop and they would eventually initiate programmes to enhance their students’ awareness on the importance of keeping drains and rivers clean.

He said many river tributaries, especially those in town areas, had been fitted with rubbish traps to check pollution.