Mayor: MBKS assessing tree health near Pending school after recent incident

Borneo Post

20-07-2025

Dato Wee Hong Seng
KUCHING (July 20): The Kuching South City Council (MBKS) is conducting an assessment on the sustainability of the big trees near Chung Hua Middle School No.1 in Pending here in light of a recent fallen tree case.
Kuching South Mayor Dato Wee Hong Seng said they need to determine whether those big trees are still healthy or have withered with times, particularly on the root parts that are beneath the soil.
'We have discussed about the matter and requested the relevant authorities to do an assessment on the trees. This is a move to ensure that those big trees are good to stay,' he said during his Facebook live session 'Shall WEE Talk' yesterday.
Wee said the relevant authorities are also doing a wind velocity test in a bid to figure out why the tree had fallen.
He said this is necessary since no one can predict the wind speed and they have to be sure the wind velocity is at a normal rate.
According to him, three men were needed to remove the fallen tree, which had already been chopped into pieces.
'This goes to show how heavy the big tree is, but it was uprooted by the gust. We can only imagine how strong the wind was.'
Given the current global climate change, the Mayor said the weather is becoming more unpredictable with strong winds and a high volume of rainfall, causing flash floods and other disasters.
Despite this, Wee said this is not the time to give excuses but to focus on the necessary efforts to figure out the root cause of the problem.
He also hoped that the community would not speculate on the reasons behind the fallen tree.
'No one wants to see any untoward incidents such as a fallen tree. Cutting down the trees may be our last resort, but for now, we will try our best to maintain them like trimming withered branches,' he said.