Voon distributes face masks to school children, who are seen wearing lifejackets for the river crossing.
KUCHING (April 23): There is an urgent need to build a bridge to connect Kampung Selampit with the rest of Bau for the safety of the hundreds of families living there, said social activist Voon Siak Ni.
Voon said she visited the village two days ago and saw how difficult it was for villagers to use a boat to cross the crocodile-infested river for their daily routines.
“School children need to use the boat to go to school as there is no school in the village on the other side of the river.
“There is no health clinic too in the village and the villagers told me that any sick persons would need to wait for the boat and, if it is at night, it is a long wait,” she said in a statement.
She said families who have cars need to rent car garages or build their own car shed to store their cars across river.
Voon claimed the former Barisan Nasional (BN) government had for decades pledged to build a bridge but it never happened.
“The Selampit bridge is a need. The villagers are not looking for a multi-billion iconic bridge but a basic bridge to connect them to this side of the land to go to work and cari makan (earn a living).
“The bridge is of utmost importance to the villagers and also for the safety of the villagers, especially the school children,” she said.
Voon said seeing the school children use the boat to cross the river to go to school caused “a pain in my heart”.
“I am hopeful that the government of the day will do what is necessary to get the bridge done for the villagers of Kampung Selampit as soon as possible,” she added.