DESPITE being a university graduate, a 24-year-old woman is not grossed out by work at a catfish farm in Kuala Nerang, Terengganu, where she is breeding a million odd catfish, reports Kosmo!Nur Atikah Amran said she now has about a million catfish in eight ponds in an area of about 2.5ha.

       “I ventured into this field on a challenge by my father, Amran Shamsuddin.

       “Having grown up in a village environment, I am able to go down into the fish pond despite numerous ‘stings’ by fish. Apart from that, I’m used to playing in the mud and getting bitten by leeches,” said Nur Atikah, who has been on the job for the past three years.

       The Applied and Creative Arts bachelor’s degree holder said that initially, her father had built and worked on four ponds but after she took over, they managed to add four more ponds.

       Daily, she markets between 600kg and 700kg of catfish at a price of RM4.20 per kg.

       The fish is sold around Kuala Nerang, Pokok Sena, Alor Setar, Jitra and Kuala Ketil.

       She said the business was close to calamity once when the catfish ponds were hit by floods.

       “I lost almost RM200,000 after the catfish escaped into the nearby rice fields.

       “The incident did not break my spirit because I continued my career as a catfish breeder. In fact, I plan to build five more ponds to meet a growing demand for the livestock,” she said.

       > Traders at the Handicraft Bazaar in Dataran Pahlawan, Melaka, have been facing sewage drainage issues for the past 17 years, reports Utusan Malaysia.

       Heritage Gallery Traders’ Welfare chairman Kadir Ahmad, 45, said a complaint had been made to the joint management body (JMB) and the developer, but action has yet to be taken.

       He said pump failure has caused blockage in the channel, thus allowing sewage water to rise to the surface, leading to the flooding of the entire bazaar area.

       “It has been 10 years since the JMB promised to change it to a new pump, but there has been no follow-up on the matter.

       “This problem is getting more serious because it happens up to four times a month.

       “More than a hundred complaints have been made over the past 17 years; unfortunately, they are just ignored.

       “They point the finger at the traders. When the sewage overflows, nearly 75 traders are not able to trade on that day,” he said.

       Kadir said that even when reports are lodged, the authorities do not come immediately to check on the problem.

       The traders have no choice but to clean the area themselves even though monthly maintenance is paid every month.

       ● The above article is compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with this ' >'sign, it denotes a separate news item.