MARAN: The once rapidly flowing Sungai Pahang in Kampung Pesagi, Chenor near here has been reduced to a mere parched riverbed with sand dominating the landscape.
Prolonged hot weather and ongoing El Nino conditions seems to have arrived early in the traditional village as last year, the river bed was only exposed in late June onwards.
Erratic rainfall over the past few weeks has exacerbated the situation leaving cage fish breeders in dire straits with a majority of them choosing to sell the ikan patin (silver catfish) in bulk rather than suffering losses once the water below the cages completely dries up.
Born and raised at Kampung Pesagi, Setafar Chek, 65, described the scenario this year as worrying compared to the previous years and the water level had dropped drastically since the middle of last month.
"The exposed Sungai Pahang riverbed here is not unusual but it usually occurs in late July when the (hot) weather is quite extreme but it arrived early this year. Just imagine the river water which breached the danger level and overflowed its banks during the rainy season in December last year is now completely gone in less than three months.
"My house is less than 100m away from the river so I am familiar with the water level, and noticed it gradually dropping since last month. Since the fasting month began, there has been no rain and the rivers' passage has completely dried up," he said, adding the extreme heat had resulted in cracked soil along the riverbank.
Setafar said currently more than 3km of the riverbed is exposed and expects more sections of the river to dry up if the hot spell is prolonged.
"When the hot weather left the riverbed exposed last year, the villagers assumed it was terrible but this year seems to be worse. One section of the river here is completely dried and there is a waterway on the opposite side (another channel of the river) but that is due to the sand dredging activities which makes the section deeper.
"Over the past few days, caged fish farmers operating along the river have decided to sell their fish as the river water level was declining and drying up. They will suffer more losses if the cage fish dies....more than 30 farmers have emptied their cages," he said.
Meanwhile, inshore fisherman Mohd Yusuf Mat Amin, 64, said he has been forced to remain at home as there is no way he could go out to cast his net.
"When the river water level dropped, sandbars appeared at certain sections allowing fishermen to somehow cast their nets but now only the riverbed is exposed. Our boats are stranded along the riverbank.....the river is dry so how are we supposed to go out to fish.
"Some fishermen will travel further upstream of Sungai Pahang to cast their nets but the catch is no longer lucrative as previously. The water is quite shallow in most areas," he said, adding some 20 inshore fishermen in the village were affected by the significant drop in river water.
Yusuf, who now relies on the RM250 monthly allowance provided for inshore fishermen, said he hopes the Pahang government would consider carrying out sand dredging works at the river facing Kampung Pesagi.
"The river channel on the other side is still deep due to the sand mining works so allowing dredging works near Kampung Pesagi will allow the water to continuously flow during the hot season. Sand mining will form a new lubuk (deeper part of the river) and become a habitat for various fish species," he said.
Yusuf agreed that the significant influx of silt from upstream during the monsoon floods over the years had resulted in the riverbed to be filled with sand, and the situation is worsened by the current hot weather.