Malacca fences up river where four children drowned

Chief Minister Datuk Idris Haron issued the order, and the Drainage and Irrigation Department (DID) acted promptly - Sungai Melaka near Taman Seri Krubong where four children drowned yesterday is to be made inaccessible to children there. The DID today started erecting a fence along Sungai Melaka near the residential area to prevent children from going to the river to swim or look for 'lala' (clams). "I understand that the river had claimed two lives before this (incident). Something must be done immediately because life is very precious," Idris told reporters here. The menteri besar said the DID had been instructed to install a 1.6-metre high fence topped with a 0.6-metre high barbed wire along the river bank and to put up a warning sign deterring children from swimming and playing in the river. Four children, Hanis Balkis Fadzli, seven, and her elder brother Mohamad Nazmi, nine, and their friends, Athafiz Amin, 10, and Rodziatul Nadia Rosnan, 12, drowned in the river at about 4 pm yesterday when they were looking for clams. Idris expressed his condolences to the three families of the drowned children. He said the state government had provided aid of RM1,600 to each family while Tangga Batu MP Datuk Dr Abu Bakar Mohd Diah had given RM1,000. Melaka DID director Gapar Asan, when contacted, said work to install the fence started today. He also said that the DID had locked up a vacant house along a stretch of terrace houses through which children had gone to the river.