Floods cut off access to 17 longhouses in Mukah

MUKAH: An 800-m stretch of an access road to Tanjung Pedada, Sungai Mukah, 27 km from here, was inundated by floodwaters, cutting off about 1,350 people from 17 longhouses and a village over the past four days.
As of 10am today, the stretch of road was still under 1.5 m of floodwaters, according to Mukah/Dalat District Council deputy chairman Mawar Awang.
He said his longhouse, Rumah Mawar, was among the longhouses cut off by road. The other longhouses were Rumah Tinggang, Rumah Andrea, Rumah Banyai, Rumah Salek, Rumah Radin, Rumah Ibat, Rumah Randi, Rumah Linchan, Rumah Robin, Rumah Ason, Rumah Mathew, Rumah Empi, Rumah Garit, Rumah Lede, Rumah Beriak and Rumah Butang and the village of Kampung Seting.
"The flooded stretch is impassable and the longhouse residents and villagers have had to use boats to get to higher ground before proceeding to Mukah town to buy daily necessities.
"Looking at the weather today, we fear that the floodwaters will keep rising," he said when contacted by Bernama today.
The stretch of road was also flooded last year and the waters stagnated for two weeks before the road became dry again, resulting in damage to fruit and vegetable crops.
"The floodwaters started rising 10 days ago but it was only in the last four days that the road access was cut off. The floodwaters had also risen up to one metre below the stilted longhouses," he said.
According to Mawar, he and the other longhouse chiefs would meet the Mukah district officer today to inform him of the floods and inform the Public Works Department of the need to upgrade the flood-prone stretch of road. Tellian state assemblyman Yussibnosh Balo had been informed of the situation.
Mawar said the current in Sungai Mukah had been swift of late and this posed a danger to the school children who used boats to get across the river to Sekolah Kebangsaan Kenyana.
He advised the school children to exercise caution when travelling on land or water. — Bernama