NO CHOICE: SMK Tinjar students obtaining water from a stream for shower and consumption.
MARUDI: The lack of basic amenities like piped water and reliable electricity supply has made it hard for students and teachers of SMK Tinjar in Tinjar, Baram near here.
Village folks living nearby are also facing the same problem. They have been experiencing this situation for some years now.
Worse, students have to study in a wet and messy environment because their classrooms are leaking.
This interrupts their studying process while teachers also had to scurry away to look for shelter to avoid getting wet.
That is not the end of their problem. The roofs of the teachers’ quarters are cracked and leaking too, though it is less than three years old. This had caused great inconvenience to the occupants especially while sleeping as they had to move out to a dry place to settle for the night.
To make matters worse, there is no piped water supply in the area while the electricity supply is not consistent.
BIG PROBLEM: The ceiling in a classroom.
Indeed the teachers, students and the villagers in general, are living in difficult conditions, with constant fear of a black-out and no clean water for their daily consumption.
There are generators but when they break down, the place would be in total darkness.
The students, teachers and villagers have no choice but to depend on rain water for cooking, drinking and washing clothes and on dry days, they have to resort to using water pumped from a nearby river that is contaminated.
Tinjar is located in Baram constituency and the majority of the people there are Ibans. The others are the Orang Ulu community made up of the Kayans and Kenyahs; Penans and other minority ethnic groups.
It takes more than two hours from Miri to reach the constituency by road.
They felt that they needed at least the basic infrastructure like road and amenities like water, electricity and proper classrooms and teachers’ quarters.
Parents feared that their children may not be properly educated in view of the poor condition of their classrooms.
“The matter must be given due attention and expeditious resolution from the government,” Miri PAS chief and state PAS deputy commissioner III, Jofri Jaraiee urged.