WITH the monsoon season in full swing, images of flooding and large waves hitting the beach undoubtedly comes to mind.
Where the beach is concerned, human engineering has conjured many devices to combat the rising waves, such as the bulky cement wave breakers. Not only are they unsightly, they are costly too.
In a video post on X by netizen Ikhwan, a layer of mangrove trees could be seen gracefully breaking the waves in a violent sea.
Ikhwan said he wanted to remind people about the importance of the mangrove trees and that they were the natural tamers of the sea.
Just peringatan pada semua jabatan berkenaan, inilah kepentingan pokok bakau kepada alam. Penjinak ombak semulajadi Tuhan bagi.
— Ikhwan (@JatIkhwan) October 13, 2024
Ikhwan added in the comment section that about 20 to 90% of the waves are broken when it passes through the mangrove trees.
His sentiment was echoed by many netizens who added their opinion in the comment section.
Netizen Asyraf pointed out that people were removing the mangrove trees and now they are forced to build barriers to stop the waves.
They simply wanted to incur cost instead of keeping the natural wave breakers.
SyahF, on the other hand, posted a photo hinting that perhaps the government of Penang might not agree with the importance of the mangrove trees.
Unsurprisingly, the topic quickly took a turn into awareness. One netizen said there is a project to grow mangrove trees in several areas along Johor (Kota Tinggi and Muar), Selangor, Perak and Kedah.
However, there was one place in Perak where interlopers broke into to make a pond to rear prawns. The authorities simply kept silent even though the issue was raised on Facebook.
Another netizen informed that all the mangrove trees in the district of Manjung, Perak have been chopped down. The land was reclaimed and houses and factories were built there instead.
Mrs Hamid said that when she was still little, mangrove trees could be found along the length of the Galing river (at least from the area of Mariott hotel) to Tanjung Api.
Now they were gone and the river water had gone black due to the many fallen and rotting leaves. When the water receded, a multitude of animals could be found such as crabs, birds and more.
It is clear that the importance of the mangrove trees cannot be discounted.
But will we learn about its importance through effective education or by the pain of regret when nature rises to punish our unrestrained urbanisation? We will learn the lesson, one way or the other. – Oct 14, 2024
Main image: bbc.com
