Plenty of promises to fulfill

KUCHING: The re-elected State Assemblyman for Bengoh Dr Jerip Susil

and Deputy Tourism Minister Datuk Dr James Dawos now has plenty of promises to be fulfilled to the constituents.
Jerip is his election ‘ceramahs’ has promised to address all the outstanding issues which include the Native Customary Rights (NCR) land, illegal logging activities, the new resettlement for four villages affected by the Bengoh Dam, land titles for the traditional villages and the many issues affecting the villagers of Kampung Semadang as well as the basic amenities like clean water supply and electricity supply.

While Dawos in his speeches during the ceramah di Bengoh and Tarat constituencies has promised that he will bring more tourism facilities and developing of more tourist spots and products in the two constituencies which are in are in the Mambong constituency of which Dawos is the Member of Parliament (MP).
Kampung Semadang headman Samson Manggang said the voters in the village has given Dr Jerip their thumping support because they wanted to give him the chance to resolve all issues affecting the village and the villager.
Among the issues the villagers wanted Jerip to quickly resolve were the long outstanding issue of granting land titles under the traditional villages lots and approval to their application for an area within their own NCR land for the village’s extension programme.
The village’s Development and Security Committee about three years ago has applied to the Chief Minister through Dawos for an area within their own NCR land for the village’s extention programme but up today has not received any answer to the application.
Residents from four villages affected by the construction of the Bengoh Dam - Kampung Taba Sait, Rejoi, Bojong/Pain and Semban wanted Jerip and Dawos to ensure that the government pay full compensations for their land, houses, crops and their other properties before they moved to the new resettlement located not far from Kampung Semadang.
The affected villagers also demanded to be provided with free house at the new resettlement.
Before this the government has only compensated their houses and lands which will be impounded by the dam’s water, but not their farm lands and their NCR lands which are not affected by the construction of the dam.
Thus, the 359 villagers affected by the project had demanded the government to pay them full compensation before they move to the new resettlement area situated near Kampung Semadang.
Construction on the RM310 million Bengoh Dam project began in August 2007 and completed in November last year.
Chairman of the Bengoh Resettlement Scheme Liaison Committee, Itodio Peu Anak Rayu said the villagers will moved out once the compensation are fully paid to them and the free houses are provided to them.
For the time being they still continue to stay at their respective village while waiting for the completion of the new resettlement area.
Two villagers of Kampung Taba Sait, Kumuk Anak Sure, 52, and Gaji Anak Jaon, 51, both said Jerip and Dawos should now assist them to get the full compensation and free houses at the new resettlement.
Dawos Mamit had promised that the affected villagers will be given free house to stay at the new resettlement.
He said he had proposed to the Chief Minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud to provide free houses for those affected families and the Chief Minister has agreed to his proposal.
He said the government will also compensate all land affected by the Bengoh Dam project while land at the upper part of the dam will also be paid compensation when the government acquired them for development project in the future.
The MP for Mambong has said at the new resettlement the villagers will enjoy the basic facilities like water, electricity, road, school and clinic unlike at their present villages which are situated in the mountainous area and impossible for the basic amenities to be provided to them.
A totalof 1,600 people from the four are affected by the project.
The Bengoh Dam project uses the latest technology, which has been popularly used around the world, with the construction involved roller compacted concrete (RCC) technology, which is much faster and stronger than conventional methods.
The RCC technology also ensures a good and lasting dam, which has been proven in many developed countries.
The Bengoh Dam is the second project in Malaysia to be constructed using RCC technology after the Kinta Dam in Perak, which was completed four years ago.
The production of raw water from the Bengoh Dam is anticipated to meet the increasing demand of the city and greater Kuching and Samarahan area until 2030.
Once completed, the dam would store about 144.1 million cubic metres of water, hence increasing the daily raw water production at the Batu Kitang treatment plant from 786 to 2047 mega litres per day (MLD).
Presently the reservoir at Batu Kitang, which provides most of the domestic and industrial water supply in Kuching, only has a capacity of 786 MLD while the current demand for water in Kuching alone is 635 MLD.