KUALA NERUS - Thousands of tilapia fish were found dead in Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin (UniSZA) lake on Thursday afternoon due to hot weather.
UniSZA East Coast Environmental Research Intitute (ESERI) research fellow Dr Fathurrahman Lananan said El Nino phenomena with temperature in Kuala Nerus hitting 33 to 34°C caused a decrease in the concentration of dissolved oxygen in the water.
He said this was disrupting the balance of oxygen within the lake ecosystem.
ESERI team conducting water quality test to find the cause of the thousands of fish death.
Fathurrahhman said that a similar incident occurred in 2018 during the El Nino period but the number of dead fish was higher compared to the current situation.To prevent such incidents, Dr Fathurrahman proposed the construction of a Lake Water Treatment Plant to effectively manage and treat the nutrients in the lake.
This is necessary as the lake ecosystem has been receiving domestic or municipal water inflows from the surrounding residential areas of UniSZA for the past six years.
However, the proposal was reportedly delayed due to Covid-19 pandemic and lockdowns in the following year.
"This domestic water inflow was initially not included in UniSZA lake's design specifications, which is a recreational lake.
"However, the lake currently performs dual role as one of the components in flood mitigation in the Gong Badak/Tok Jembal area which requires the lake to receive the domestic/municipal water inflow.
"Therefore, there is a high need for the Lake Water Treatment Plant to be realised and we hope it can be implemented soon," he said.
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