GUA MUSANG: The Health Ministry, Department of Environment and the Department of Minerals and Geoscience have been collecting water samples from four separate locations to test the accuracy of the cause behind the disease affected the Batek tribe in Kuala Koh.
National Disaster Management Agency (Nadma) Operations Implementation Division director Datuk Azizan Abu Taat said the water samples in four locations were collected based on the references made by the orang asli community and a non-governmental organisation Sahabat Jariah Malaysia.
He said the teams from Nadma were at the Kuala Koh settlement from 10am until 3pm today.
Water samples were collected to carry out tests on the accuracy of the cause behind the disease that killed 15 residents of the orang asli community here since early May, he said.
“For that purpose we collect water samples from the hillside, river used by the community to bath, tubular well and water connections at the settlement,“ he said.
Azizan said the Chemistry Department would carry out tests on the samples and the results would be available next month.
Apart from producing more accurate results, the moves were also hoped to satisfy many parties pertaining to the cause of the disease, he said.
“We will carry out five more water sampling process until July to get accurate results.
“Hopefully this effort will help the orang asli to get clean water supply,“ he told reporters at Kampung Kuala Koh, here, adding that the community had been advised to boil water before drinking. — Bernama
