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Monday, July 15, 2013

Villagers left out of basic ammenities






PADAWAN: Villagers from six Bidayuh villages on the highlands of Upper Padawan are in need of basic amenities like road accessible by car, water and electricity supply.

The villages are Kampung Sepit, Kampung Kiding, Kampung Assum, Kampung Nusaraya, Kampung Kakas and Kampung Parang.

These villagers are supportive of the government of the day but are unhappy because they felt they had been left out and being denied of basic amenities.

These villages are under the state constituency of Tarat and Mambong Parliamentary constituency, whose representatives are Datuk Roland Sagah and Datuk Dr James Dawos respectively.

While other parts of the state are enjoying good road network, 24-hour electricity supply and clean water, the people from these six villages still have to walk long hours through jungle paths to reach their village and in the dark at night.








They said for more than 50 years they have been asking for the access road to be built to reach their villages but up to this day they never get it.
"It has been the case for generations after generations as these villages could only be reached either by air or on foot,” said Joseph Tau, 51, of Kampung Kiding.

By land, villagers have to walk three kilometers of steep and winding terrain to reach Kampung Kambug to nearest road to catch the transport to bring them to town.


At the moment the road is only built up to Kampung Kambug and from there it is a stroll to the Kampung Assum-Kampung Kiding junction followed by an uphill climb all the way passing green forests and streams for two hours to get to the destination.

“The authorities might think that we the people living in the Upper Padawan have gotten used to the hardship and battle for mental and physical strength are a way of life for us.

“From generation to generation the villagers still had to endure the same kind of hardship as our forefathers,” said Tau.
According to Tau there had been many cases where ill village folks had to be carried on stretchers and walked for three hours to rush them to the hospital.
He said there were also cases when the sick person just died in mid-way before he or she could even get the transport at the nearest base at Kampung Kambug to go to the hospital.
“Carrying the sick who is in need of urgent treatment for six kilometers (three-hour journey) on foot is no joke and this possible only when the weather is fine but when it rain it is another hassle for the villages,” said Tau.



According to Tau there were also cases of mothers giving birth to their child at half way.

“We are also denied of health care. The nearest Klinik Desa is at Kampung Annah Rais. Flying doctor service is only one a month and depending on the weather.

“There is no transport ready at the nearest clinic. We have to wait for good Samaritans to send the sick to the hospital. When any of the sick villagers died in the hospital we have to carry the casket up to the village. These are not made up stories but it is the reality faced by the villagers,” added Tau.

“We have no quality of life. When the villagers buy something for RM10 they will need to spend another RM10 for people to carry the goods on their back to our village.”

Tau said a gas cylinder at his village is sold at RM60 while Ron 95 fuel and diesel is RM3 per litre. For children going to school they have to cross few streams and walked on bamboo stilt.

There are also parents who travel by foot to send and pick their pre-school children to a pre-school at SK Kambug – walking down to the school for two hours and walking back to the village for another two hours.

Hence, Tau appealed to the government to build the road up to his village.

“We have been with the government all this years and 2020 is only six years to come but we still do not have road, no clean water and no electricity supply and no economic activities.

"How can we say that we are developed nation by 2020 if there are still villages are without road network, no clean water and electricity supply although only our village is only about 50 km from Kuching. It’s a case of so near and yet so far.

“We need road because with road there will be economic activities for the people,” stressed Tau.

Simon Ahem of Kampung Kiding said his village folks initiated their own road project by collecting money from those who had stable jobs in town but that was soon scrapped when the funds ran out.

According to Simon, the road construction started in December 2001 and stop in July 2002 due to insufficient fund.

He said those villagers working in town contributed a minimum of RM200 while each family gave RM100.

With that money they hired a bulldozer to bulldoze the pathway and had spent RM16,000 for the project.

The villagers used big three trunks to build the bridges across the rivers.

However the road is still not passable by motorcycle due to its bad and dangerous condition.

Simon all it need was for the government to allocate the some fund to upgrade the road and make it passable by vehicle.

“We don’t need RM10 million or RM100 million road, sufficient a gravel road passable by vehicle.

“We cannot forever live without road. We cannot improve our living standard as long as there is no road,” said Simon.

“Don’t know how long we have to wait,” he complained.

Simon pointed out that it is a real stumbling block to their economic improvement of the village folks.

“We really need the road now, than electricity and water supply because we believe road could bring in more economic activities for the people, thus will improve our standard of living,” he said.

“We want to be part of 2020, a developed nation with high income.

“We see development taking place elsewhere but here we can’t even get an access road. If you say the mountain ranges made it difficult for road to be built, I don’t think that’s a good enough reason. I have seen villages elsewhere in remote places up on the hills, that have access roads,” he said.

“We do hope the Government will consider upgrading the existing pathway, which was cleared 11 years back,” he appealed.

He believed with a good road, other facilities and amenities like electricity and water supply, proper waste management and land surveying works would be able to reach the villages easily.

He said the villagers were keen on helping the Government with plans to develop their area.

In fact, he said, if it was difficult to provide them with direct power supply, the village was willing to opt for a mini hydroelectric dam.

He said it would cost below RM200,000 to have one which includes a turbine of 60KW with a transformer unit.

Currently, the village depends on generator for power and gravity feed for water.

Former Bengoh Assemblyman Datuk William Tanyuh Nub hoped their State assemblyman (Datuk Roland Sagah) and the MP (Datuk Dr James Dawos) would urgently look into the plight of those villagers.

Tanyuh said these are long overdue problems faced by the people in these villages and should be addressed by the government urgently.

“My idea was to address these problems there but after I was not re-nominated to contest in the constituency in the election, so now things are being left uncompleted,” said Tanyuh.

Tanyuh said when he was the elected the people representative he initiated the construction of access road to his village Kampung Kiding and was determined to connect the road with the surrounding villages but half way after they ran out of fund.

Obviously the villages are being neglected and left behind.

Several Kampung Kiding had asked Datuk Roland Sagah and Datuk James Dawos Mamit for help to construct a road to Kiding.

“Now that Datuk Dr Dawos had won the election we hoped he will look into our plight so that we too can enjoy the fruit of development,” he said.

Hopefully this road will enable the other surrounding villages such as Kakas, Assum, Parang and Nusaraya to be connected," he added.

Kiding is next to the Indonesian village of Goon Tembawang which is dependent on Sarawak for their survival.

"They are took far away from their own centre and as such have to travel to Padawan by foot for hours to purchase or buy provisions.

There are 68 houses in Kampung Kiding with about 300 people. The village was established in 1880.

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