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SANDAKAN – With faulty street lights and dark roads at night, east coast districts Sandakan and Tawau, home to both the second and third largest cities in Sabah respectively, seem to be a far cry from their designation.
Two Warisan state assemblymen have taken the Sabah government to task for not monitoring the local authorities and Public Works Department, who are in charge of the matter.
Justin Wong, state rep for Sri Tanjong, accused the Tawau Municipal Council of being careless and failing to monitor its own contractors.
To him, it is obvious that the contractors have not been doing their jobs to maintain street lights in the district.
He claimed that conditions are so bad that visitors have started making fun of Tawau, describing going there as “travelling back in time” and “living in the past”.
“My greatest concern is not that people are making fun of Tawau, but the safety and lives of the road users that are at risk because of all the non-functioning street lights.
“As a people’s representative here, I cannot just keep quiet about this matter,” he said in a statement yesterday.
He said he had inspected the roads in Kuhara, Sin On, Apas, Dunlop, and Belunu at night and found them to be very dark, as almost all the streetlights – at least a hundred of them – are no longer working.
Other than street lights along Apas Avenue road that are under the federal government, the rest of the street lights in Tawau are under the management of the Tawau Municipal Council, which appoints its own contractors to maintain the lights.
Only road
Meanwhile, in Sandakan, Elopura assemblyman Calvin Chong said that he found over 70% of streetlights there no longer functioning, stressing that the problem has been prolonged for years.
“We issue one complaint after another, but to date, the problem is not solved.
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“For example, of the (row of) street lights under the management of the Public Works Department that start from Jalan Labuk to Mile 32, only several are working, while the rest look like they are there for decoration.
“They must know that this road is the only road that is connecting Sandakan to other major districts like Tawau and Kota Kinabalu,” he said in a statement.
Chong said that the problem must not be taken lightly as it places the safety of road users at risk, and it is the main factor that has led to many road accidents around the area.
Are contractors not up to mark?
Wong said that contractors appointed by the Tawau Municipal Council in Tawau have failed.
He claimed that one of them is unreachable during the day, and would only respond at night. “They are also not responsive when handling complaints about faulty street lights,” he alleged.
“They have also been telling people that they cannot repair the lights because they don’t have the parts.
“It is very unreasonable for the company to constantly give the same excuse when it is their job to maintain and fix the streetlights; shouldn’t they have the parts to do the job that they are supposed to do?” he added.
Wong said the government has been using lack of funding as an excuse to delay the upgrading of Tawau’s street lights into LED lights.
Out of a total of 8,470 streetlights under the Tawau Municipal Council, 3,386 have been upgraded to LED, and 5,048 have yet to be upgraded due to a lack of allocation from the government.
“The government must stop giving lack of funding as an excuse. They must understand that LED lights are not only brighter but also last longer and save more electricity, which is a long-term solution for the people here.
“Sadly, not only are our lights not upgraded, they are not even repaired when they stop functioning,” he said.
Wong also said the Sabah government must develop Tawau, which will soon become the district nearest to Indonesia’s emerging capital Nusantara in Kalimantan. – The Vibes, May 4, 2023
