Steady progress in Lawas

The pace of development that has taken place in some of the rural areas here in the northeast corridor of Sarawak has seen more progress than ever before.

Like most settlements in the state, Lawas started on a riverfront, where boats and ferries used to be the main modes of transportation.

Now, there are many roads plying the area with more road-building projects under way since the introduction of the Rural Basic Infrastructure (RBI) National Key Results Area (NKRA) to provide access to previously remote villages.

Kampung Pemukat has undergone a facelift with the building of new roads right behind the village.

Village headman Haji Abd Kadir Haji Akob said: “It was tough before. When we opened our backdoor it was still an island of nipah palm trees but now we open our doors and we see a road. We can now even park our cars right behind our houses,”

So far, 39 families relocated their homes along the new roads instead of living by the river.

The families in Kampung Awat-Awat also now enjoy clean and treated water straight to their homes thanks to the Bekalan Air Luar Bandar project – a plus point not only for their own well-being but also in ensuring optimum quality of their salai tahai products.

While neighbours in Brunei or western Sabah may be familiar with Lawas and its attractions, visitors from peninsular Malaysia and overseas usually overlook this rural town.

With its picturesque fishing villages, Tamu Lawas (weekend market) and beautiful natural attrac­­-tions like its lesser-known cave systems (compared with Mulu), Gu­­nung Murud and scenic small river resorts like Kampung Air Terjun or Sri Tanjung Resort, all point to its relatively untapped potential as an important tourist destination for Sarawak.

The infrastructure is certainly already in place for the world to start experiencing Lawas’ many hidden treasures and the rural communities here will be among the first beneficiaries of this development.

Posted by Lawasian on Khamis, Februari 02, 2012. Filed under , . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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