THE State Government will rebuild all suspension bridges in Nabawan that were damaged and washed away in last month’s floods, said Chief Minister Datuk Hajiji Noor.
He said in the meantime, the State Government had channelled allocations to relevant district offices to purchase boats and outboard engines to help residents to cross the river and conduct their daily activities.
He told reporters this at a media conference in Tuaran on April 30. Earlier, he held a meeting with the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Economy) Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed to discuss the implementation of Keluarga Malaysia (Malaysian Family) Hardcore Poverty Eradication (BMTKM) programme in the State.
Previously a video clip showed a group of children in school uniforms using a raft and a zip line to cross a river in Nabawan after a suspension bridge which was the villagers’ only means of crossing the river was swept away by floodwaters.
On April 28, Deputy Works Minister Datuk Arthur Joseph Kurup said the Federal Government had agreed to provide emergency provisions to several villages in Nabawan that were badly affected by the floods, involving allocations for bridge construction and road maintenance.
Deputy Education Minister II Datuk Mohamad Alamin said the Ministry was very concerned about the safety of school children and would work with all agencies involved to resolve the issue.
He hoped netizens would not blame his Ministry as it was a public bridge that was not inside the school compound.In the meantime, the State Government agreed to immediately approve funding to provide boats so that affected villagers and school children in Kg Nangkawangan and nearby villages in Nabawan can get across the river pending the construction of new suspension bridges.
Hajiji said the District Officer had been instructed to contact the Chief Minister’s Department (CMD) to procure the funding for the boats and outboard engines. Netizens have been having a field day in social media ever since the videos went viral.
One included a cartoon of a raft being used, instead, to transport bags of money collected from Sabah to the peninsula, including from petroleum. Daily Express reported earlier that some 27 pupils of SK Nangkawangan have used the two risky methods to cross the river to go to the primary school on a daily basis since March.
The three suspension bridges there were damaged in heavy flooding in March and the residents decided to solve the problem themselves, apparently after a promise by Pensiangan Member of Parliament Datuk Arthur Joseph Kurup to provide these facilities pending the repairs, did not materialise.
The Parents-Teachers Association bought the items to build the zipline and flying fox by pooling their money and they took turns to ensure the children get across the river by supervising the makeshift methods from both sides of the river.
Daily Express did not get any response from Arthur, who is Deputy Federal Works Minister, on whether this claim by the residents was true or why action was not taken by him to provide the boats immediately even if no such promise was made.
