A view of SMK Katibas from the Katibas River. The wooden structure in the centre is the water pump that has failed due to the lack of power supply.
SONG: The student population of SMK Katibas, 45-minute drive on a bumpy road or an hour boat ride from this small riverine town in the central region, has shrunk from 350 to about 20 since April 24, the day the last of four generators that provided power to the school broke down.
Now the picturesque boarding school, which caters for the youths of the more than 100 longhouses along Katibas River and its tributaries, is plunged into total darkness at sundown and hot and stuffy in the daytime as the lights and fans cannot work.
However, darkness and heat are the lesser of the problems paralyzing the school because without proper pumps drawing water from the Katibas River to the school, the whole school cannot work.
As a result, the toilets cannot be flushed, and there is no water for bathing and cooking.
The 40 teachers and the 20 day students who can afford to commute daily by longboats have to collect water from the river and store it in containers and tanks for their daily use.
The students and teachers of the school could still cope with frequent power breakdowns in the past but with all four generators broken down, the situation is untenable.
Ganging (right) and Lily (second left) speaking to The Borneo Post at Rumah Pilai, Ng Miau, Katibas.
Among those who were forced to stop schooling and go back to their longhouses is Form 4 student Adriana Ganging Ujang from Rumah Pilai Lasah, Ng Miau, which is a settlement of three longhouses barely a five-minute boat ride away from the school.
“The lack of power supply and water has forced many students like me to go back home because there is no water to flush the toilet and the classroom is just too hot and unbearable.
“And the cook can’t prepare meals for us if we stay at the dormitory,” Ganging told The Borneo Post yesterday.
However, Ganging is worried about missing the upcoming school examination, starting next Monday.
“I want to do well to fulfill my dream to be a cartoonist, and I need to have a good result to achieve my ambition,” she said.
Ironically, the solution to the lack of power to the school is surprisingly simple.
Another resident of the 19-door Rumah Pilai Lasah, Lily Lanyau, 37, whose Form 1 daughter remained at the school, said her longhouse had electricity supply from Sesco and is just three kilometres from the school.
“All it needs is to have road connecting my longhouse to the school so that Sesco can connect the school to the grid. “So, on behalf of the students, I am appealing to the relevant authorities to fix the generators soonest possible. But for long term solution, the school should be linked by road and the electricity supply should be connected to the grid system,” said Lily.
Longhouse headman Philip Geliga, 50, said SMK Katibas was vital for the future of the youths in the area.
“This is the only secondary school and the only hope for our children to be educated. It is really our hope that the school could function again so that lessons will not be interrupted,” he said.