Road connectivity their main priority

BINTULU: The priority of villagers living in the interior of Murum constituency in Sebauh District is a road linking their village to the trunk road to Bintulu.

“If there is a road, then life of the people will change forever as they will be linked to the rest of the world,” Penghulu Awai Anyik, an Orang Ulu, from Rh Awai Tubau told the BAT6 team.

“People who have cash crops can sell them in towns if there is a road compared to using river transport. Their livelihood would be better.”

Awai, who has 25 villages under his administration said there were still many villages using roads built by timber companies but they were not connected to the trunk road.

“This is the problem faced by the villagers who want to come to towns like Tubau, Sebauh and Bintulu. Generally, they still depend on river transport.

“My village is sited along the road so it is quite convenient for us to get to town especially during an emergency or when we want to sell our cash crops.The road has changed our life for the better,” he said.

He is supported by Penghulu Sebli Undol who has 62 Iban villages under him. He believes that a road is a priority, followed by clean water and electricity supply.

Sebli said when Bakun Road was built for the Bakun Hydro Dam Project, the villagers built their homes nearer to the road and now they were reaping the benefit of the relocation.

“We are optimistic that our assemblyman Chukpai Kennedy Ugon is helping us and he has a plan to make sure that every village under his constituency is connected by road, have clean water and electricity supplies.”

Sebli said the people in Murum were now better represented after the Murum constituency was created so that the government could serve them better.

He is optimistic these infrastructure would be looked into soon and so too other basic infrastructure.

“The development of Bakun Hydro Dam and Murum Hydro Dam has transformed the rural areas in this part of Sarawak and the people are thankful. They also hope the government can bring further development so that they can all progress together with the rest of the state and country,” he said.

“The road connectivity will help villagers to open up their land for agriculture. Those who have bigger land can plant oil palm, pepper, rubber and other crops that can bring good income for them. Road connectivity is life to these villagers,” he said.

Iban village headman Aying Mula of Sg Jalalong, Kebulu meanwhile wanted the government to lay gravel on their dirt road built by an oil palm plantation company so that it could be used daily without fear of vehicles getting stuck in the mud during the rainy season.

Aying said the road would benefit a few surrounding villages and make the travel time to the main road, Bakun Road, faster.

He told the BAT6 team that the travel time to his village took one hour at the moment but if it were gravel road it would take about half the time.

“It is very difficult for us when a fellow villager gets sick,” said Aying who oversees 29 families in the longhouse.

He also said there were crocodiles at Sungai Jalalong which discouraged the villagers to use river transportation to go down to Tubau.

“We are however lucky to have gravity feed water supply and rain water for our daily use. Of course, we want clean and treated water as it is healthier,” he said.

Aying also said they relied on generator sets to light up at night.

“We also want basic infrastructure,” said another headman Drick Ghani of Rh Drick in Kebulu.

Ghani, who looks after 31 families consisting of 197 people, added that they too needed electricity and suggested that the government employ solar energy for their use.

“Better still, we have many waterfalls that can be used for mini hydro,” he said.

Another headman Jusang Piling from a Penan longhouse, Rh Jusong in Nangga Kebulu,Tubau, who looks after 20 families and about 170 inhabitants said their link to the rest of the world was by boat and then a road to reach the nearest town.

He said in this day and age their people should also be enjoying some luxuries like roads and clean water instead of the present hardship.

Jusang hoped their new assemblyman would be able to help them and also those in similar predicament.

“The soil here is fertile and we can plant pepper and other cash crops but without road connectivity we can’t do much when it comes to marketing them in the towns. We will still be like this without roads,” he said.

Jusang, who travels an hour by boat to Nangga Kebulu and then takes a 4WD vehicle to Tubau, wants the government to expedite these basic infrastructure.