By Peter Sibon
KUCHING, Apr 8: Within two days, food rations managed to be delivered to 6,849 households in Marudi consistency while in neighbouring Telang Usan it took three days just to deliver the food items by army helicopter to the people of Ulu Baram and Ulu Tinjar mainly due to geographical factors.
Marudi assemblyman Datu Dr Penguang Manggil said his teams have been able to carry out the food delivery in a shorter time due vastly to the accessibility of these places via road, including using abandoned timber roads.
“It is very challenging to deliver so much food to a remote and shattered population but we are very thankful that our teams of volunteers consisting of headmen, community leaders, Rela and NGOs have been very efficient,” Penguang told DayakDaily today.
He added that in many areas, the village development and security committees (JKKK) took the initiative to use their minor rural project (MRP) funds to provide food to their people during the Movement Control Order (MCO).
“That’s how we have managed to deliver the food ration to four areas, namely Marudi itself, Beluru, Lapok and Ulu Teru in just two days over the weekends,” said Penguang.
For Telang Usan assemblyman Dennis Ngau, it took three days just to fly the food items to Ulu Baram and Ulu Tinjau which are inaccessible by road.
“We have started sending the food since yesterday to people of Ulu Tinjar and Ulu Baram. But due to poor weather condition, we only managed to send the food rations rather late.
“But today, since the weather is good, we managed to send the food items to many families in the two remote areas. And by tomorrow if the weather permits, we will be able to send to all of them,” said Dennis.
Three days ago, Dennis had told DayakDaily that he managed to secure the service of the army’s helicopter due to the remoteness of 32 longhouses located in Ulu Tinjar and Ulu Baram.
“Most of these longhouses were reachable by timber roads before but due to the closure of many timber camps, now many of these longhouses are no longer accessible. Any are now only reachable by river transport. Thus, we need the helicopter service to send the food to them,” Dennis explained.
Among the food items sent via helicopter were rice, sugar, salt, biscuits and noodles. —DayakDaily
