The Bakun Dam's lake, as vast as the island of Singapore, is now the home for 280 'Jelatong', the house boats owned by enterprising local residents.
"They rent them out to visitors, tourists, fishing enthusiasts or use them as their temporary homes when breeding fish in cages in the lake," said Sarawak Rivers Board (SRB) chairman Datuk Roland Sagah Wee.
The presence of Jelatong has added to waterway activities in the Belaga District, where the number of express boats, tugboats, speedboats and supply vessels has increased.
"Thus it is necessary to regulate the Bakun boats, check on their safety standards and their model types. We also need to regulate the mushrooming Jelatong, as almost all of them are without any proper facility to deal with their toilet discharge and kitchen waste.
"We need to keep Bakun free from pollution and properly manage the navigational routes," he said.
The SRB is a state government agency responsible for looking after the state river navigational safety and cleanliness, manage all 12 express boat terminals, anchorage areas, ports and now lakes created by hydroelectric dams.
MORE LAKE ACTIVITIES
It was also pointed out that following the completion of the dam, boat building activities have been mushrooming in Bakun town.
"They bring in the bigger boats in pieces from Bintulu about 150 kilometers away from Bakun, using the road, and on reaching workshops in Bakun they will start assembling them to make complete vessels, with some as big as 500 DWT(Dead Weight Tonnes)," said Roland.
MORE DAM MORE WATERBORNE TRAFFIC
With at least seven more hydroelectric dams being planned, Roland sees more responsibilities for the board.
He said presently, with an overall manpower strength of 260, including 112 enforcement officers, the board is taking care of 35 gazetted rivers covering 5,000 kilometers of navigational routes.
He said to cope with the larger responsibilities, the board has to recruit many more officers and seek a larger operating budget.
"I hope the government will consider our needs," he said.
Meanwhile, on the RM310 million Bengoh Dam near Kuching, he said it was basically a reservoir dam with a holding capacity of 144 million cubic meters. Its purpose is to supply fresh water to the greater Kuching and Samarahan town areas.
He said the board might not allow people to ply their boats on the dam's lake to ensure the dam remains pollution free.
He also said that a study was needed to discover the impact of the dam on the Sarawak River, especially in the context of navigation, the socio-economic aspect of the villages along the river, and even its impact on Kuching Port.
"We want to know, for example, should Sarawak River's water level drop when the dam is built, how will this affect them".
-- BERNAMA
