RANAU: Just a year after a group of villagers cleared rubbish from a river, several types of fish started breeding again, making their home at a waterway once used as a dumping ground.

NATURAL MASSAGE: Members of the Sabah Environmental Education Network enjoying a fish “foot massage” at the Moroli River in Kampung Luanti Baru, Ranau, on Monday.

Eight years on, the Moroli River has healed itself, and is now an attractive tourist destination, drawing locals and foreigners who flock to Kampung Luanti Baru, about 130 kilometres from Kota Kinabalu.

Fish like “pelian” quickly approach visitors who walk into a shallow part of the river, giving them a “massage” by nibbling on skin.

The effort, which is part of the “tagal” system created to keep the environment pristine, is also providing jobs for 22 villagers.

Through “tagal,” villagers are only allowed to harvest fish at certain times of the year and only in some parts of the river.

Villager Jeffren Majangki who is the chairman of the “tagal” programme, said a portion of income from a small fee collected from visitors was used to pay expenses for school-going children.

“This river was a rubbish dump.

Villagers threw rubbish in it, and motorists travelling along the main road did the same.

“Some even poisoned the river to harvest fish.

Although I faced some resistance from villagers when I first came up with the idea of cleaning the river, I never gave up.

“I bought chicken wings and did a barbecue to attract youths to help clean the river, and eventually, it was done.

Within a year, fish returned to this river,” Jeffren said.

He said this on Monday when briefing members of the Sabah Environmental Education Network (SEEN) who wanted to see for themselves what the village was doing to preserve nature.

SEEN is made up of 34 members, including government agencies, educational institutions and non-governmental organisations.

Jeffren said villagers had also gained from the homestay programme, jungle trekking and other tourism-related activities linked to a clean river.

“However, to me, the financial part is secondary. What I am hoping is that people who visit us to find out what we are doing here will do something to protect rivers and forests.

“We need to leave an environment that is clean and healthy for our children, and their children. We must not destroy nature. If we fail, our children will blame us,” he said.