A woman wades through the flood water in Sengan.
SIBU: The more than 5,000 longhouse dwellers along Sengan road, near Sibu Jaya, have been living in a dilemma for years – every time it rains, certain sections of their un-tarred road will be flooded.
And each time it happened, parents had nightmares as their children would have to wade through knee or waist-deep water to go to the only primary school in their village.
During serious flash floods, the villagers would be cut off as the road would become impassable to cars.
Dudong assemblyman Yap Hoi Liong told The Borneo Post yesterday that he sympathised with the villagers.
“The village is under Dudong constituency, and I have brought the villagers’ plea to the authorities numerous times, but the authorities have not done much.”
Yap said Sengan was the ancestral home of the more than 5,000 villagers.
“There are a dozen of longhouses served by the over 10km earth road. The villagers will not move out because they want to guard their ancestral homes.
“I shall sleep and work on this problem with them until help comes.”
Yap said with the opening up of oil palm plantations nearby, the flood problem was aggravated.
Sibu Rural District Council deputy chairman Oliver Kuo, when contacted, said the council was aware of the Sengan flood problem.
“But the hands of our council are somewhat tied because Sengan road is built on private land. It is not a road belonging to the government or under our management.”
He disclosed that Sengan road was built on the initiative of the people upon receiving Minor Rural Project (MRP) funds from the government through Datuk Tiong Thai King, the former Lanang MP (Sengan is in Lanang parliamentary constituency).
Kuo said with the road built in such circumstances, there was neither a proper master plan nor drainage system.
“This has become the biggest problem to flood in Sengan today. In fact, for any road building, there must be drains to flash out rainwater into the river.”
The council, however, had at times raised the problems plaguing Sengan road based on the spirit of goodwill.
He opined that to build a proper road, complete with drainage system, would be a multi-million ringgit undertaking.
Council would work on a solution if they had the funds, he assured.
But, he added, this must be a project that involved the people as it was on private land.
In response, Yap said the villagers of Sengan were most willing to work with the authorities to improve Sengan road.
He said he was aware the road was built on private land.
“But I can assure you that the villagers and land owners are willing to cooperate with the authorities to upgrade the road.”
Yap proposed a dialogue between the villagers and the authorities.
He said he was willing to coordinate if the authorities were willing to meet the people.
Yap proposed a discussion be held with the people and the authorities like the Drainage and Irrigation Department, the Public Works Department, and the Sibu Rural District Council.
Meanwhile, Drainage and Irrigation Department divisional engineer Ting Sing Kwong said Sengan was a feeder road serving the longhouse folks halfway between the airport and Durin Bridge.
He said rainwater could not be drained out in time, and, therefore, floods would occur.
“For the short term solution, the road can be raised.”