Kota Kinabalu: Residents in Kg Ulu Kaiduan, some 45 minutes outside the State capital, are pleading to the authorities to restore the low-level crossing, as it is a disaster waiting to happen.
Two residents, Punuk Kambisa and Harry Justin, contacted the Daily Express in the hope of having their plight acknowledged by those in authority.
They are concerned that a large hole in the middle of the Papar River’s low-level crossing would cause it to collapse.
Every time there is a significant downpour, a portion of the low-level crossing is likely to be submerged in water, thus making it difficult to see the hole in the middle of the crossing.
“We’re hoping that the Public Works Department can get it fixed before anything bad happens,” they said.
Parents are said to utilise the crossing to bring their children to school on a daily basis, and it is the only link between several villages and over 500 residents in town.
“The crossing was established over ten years ago, but only four years ago it was upgraded, and it is currently in poor shape,” they said.
A suspension bridge, which is similarly in poor condition, connects residents to town in addition to the low-level crossing, which is around 800 feet long and eight feet wide.
The villagers’ situation was also highlighted by the paper in 2017, when several children in the community had to climb a 20-foot steep cliff every day to get to school, which was a 30-minute walk due to the lack of a suspension bridge.
It was not immediately clear whether the suspension bridge for the schoolchildren had been completed.
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