KOTA BELUD – About 100 pupils and hundreds of villagers in Kg Melangkap Tiong here risk life and limb several times a day crossing a dilapidating 200m-long bridge hanging some five storeys above a river and a slew of boulders.
On the other side of the village and two other communities lies SK Melangkap and a hostel, which will take locals another 30 to 45 minutes to get to if not for the bridge.
The rusty bridge is missing most of its planks, and mostly held up by worn out wire mesh.
In the past, there had been incidents of injuries, especially to children crossing the bridge during rainy days as they slipped through the gaps.
According to Kota Kinabalu based non-governmental organisation Hopes Malaysia, villagers have been appealing for help since 2017, but their plea seems to have fallen on deaf ears.
The NGO said in a press release that if unsolved soon, this will become an even greater obstacle in keeping rural students in school.
“Besides Kg Melangkap Tiong’s poor accessibility and public safety, the community of 700 villagers is also struggling for the basic need of clean water.
“Solely relying on an old and unreliable natural gravity water system, water levels are always critically low for families to use at home. Water from this system is barely enough to get by as the supply is also shared with the school hostel and nearby tourist spots.
“The unsustainable water connection has been worsening since 2017, and now families are forced to hurriedly use what little water is stored each day before it runs out,” it added.
The organisation is in search of CSR partnerships to fix the bridge and resolve the village’s water issues. – The Vibes, April 20, 2022
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