ALL Papan wanted was to live peacefully in the lush jungles of Gua Musang in Kelantan but his life was shattered with the death of his two teenage daughters from an illness which the authorities are still trying to identify.

The 40-year-old Orang Asli from the Bateq tribe in Kg Kuala Koh lost his children last week when they fell ill after allegedly consuming contaminated water from a river near the kampung.

“I still can’t accept they are gone. It was all too sudden,” he told The Malaysian Insight. 

Papan, who is now left with two children, is worried about them as they continue to live within the vicinity of the polluted area. 

“We don’t know what is happening here. We hope that the authorities can tell us the cause of the problem.”

The tribe is now living in fear after the deaths of their family members. 

At least 14 Orang Asli, including a year-old baby, have died in the past month. All allegedly suffering breathing difficulties.  

The government has yet to ascertain the cause of their deaths, which some parties claimed are caused by river pollution. 

According to data from the Health Ministry, the Bateq in Kg Kuala Koh comprise 39 families, totalling 185 people. 

To date, more than half of the villagers, or 99 of them, have fallen ill with respiratory-related diseases. Leptospirosis and tuberculosis were initially reported as possible causes of the villagers’ sickness, but have since been ruled out.

The families have now shifted from their wooden huts to makeshift tents some 2km away.

They don’t have water to bathe, cook or wash their clothes and are relying on the goodwill of people for their drinking water. 

Another villager, Soi Moi, 49, who also lost her two children still can’t accept that they are gone.

“Both of them are married and now my three grandchildren will have to grow up with single parents,” she said. 

Soi Moi said their deaths were all too sudden as it happened within three days of them falling ill. 

“I initially thought it was just a normal fever but on the third day, they died.”

She also said one thing that is lacking in their village is access to hospitals, claiming both the nearest hospitals are more than an hour’s drive away. 

“If anyone falls really ill, then we have to call the ambulance through the tok batin (village head).

“We don’t have our own transport and mobile phone.”

Since the outbreak, the Orang Asli have had to hike for almost an hour through the jungle to get clean water. 

They said the rivers near the village, where they used to get their water supply, are now contaminated.

Another villager, Mazlan, 20, said the rivers are polluted with fertilisers, run-offs from the nearby mines and weed killers.

“We used to get clean water from these rivers but now, they are polluted from all kind of wastes. Now when we bathe in the river, we get rashes and our body becomes itchy all over,” he said. 

Mamat, who has six children, said they don’t want to risk using or consuming the river water.

“We don’t know what the condition of the rivers is right now. No one has told us anything. We are afraid and now we are only drinking bottled water which are provided to us,” he said.

The community, stricken by fear of the unknown disease, buried their dead relatives according to their customs without reporting the deaths to the authorities.

Only two Orang Asli deaths were reported to the police.

Director-general of the Orang Asli Development Department (Jakoa) Dr Juli Edo said this was coupled with the lack of communication because of their remote location deep within the jungles near Taman Negara on the border of Kelantan and Pahang when they migrated.

Federal police will begin an operation today to locate the graves of 12 Orang Asli, said to have died over the past month.

The remains will be exhumed and sent to Gua Musang Hospital for autopsies to ascertain the cause of death. – June 11, 2019.