The 6,000 population, made up largely of Chinese traders and government employees, in Belaga town in central Sarawak are facing a potential health disaster because the source of drinking water is increasingly polluted.

The under-capacity water treatment plant, built in the 1980s, draws the raw water, using only one pump (the other pump is not functioning), from the nearby Batang Belaga, along which there are several oil palm mills, timber mills and log ponds.

At Koyan, a tributary of the Batang Belaga, is a major resettlement area that forms part of the Asap-Koyan complex comprising about 10,000 people.

Penghulu Neo Hood Joo, a third-generation Chinese businessman in Belaga town, about 37km downriver from the Bakun hydro-dam site, told malaysiakini that he feared the possibility of a cholera epidemic if the source of water was not moved elsewhere or if the water supply was not properly treated.

No cause for alarm yet

According to some government employees, there had been cases of water-borne related diseases in the recent past, but the situation had not reached an alarming rate yet.

The officials revealed that there are two pumps to draw the raw water from the Belaga river, but only one is functioning. The pump is only switched on at nightfall when the town population is asleep to fill up the water storage tank.

Sometimes taps run dry during the day because the under-capacity tank is not able to meet the daily needs of the populace.

One retired police officer told malaysiakini that there is a danger of the water being contaminated with diseases because, according to him, there is a shortage of chlorine supply, often leaving impurities in the piped water supplied to homes.

Belaga-based Kayan businessman Daniel Levoh, who is a district councillor, said there is a nearby ox-bow lake which could be a new source or the nearby Balui river which is less polluted because there are fewer longhouses below the dam.

But the Belaga folks' woes are not only confined to polluted water.

Penghulu Neo said since logging activities started in the 1980s and followed by the construction of the dam, business in Belaga has been hard hit, going down by as much as 70 percent.

The hinterland region beyond Sekapa, about 30 minutes downriver by boat from Belaga, is now served by Kapit town, headquarters of Kapit Division, and the area above Belaga is now served increasingly by Bintulu because of road links.

Except for a logging road that traverses through hilly terrain of nearly 100km to Bintulu, there is no road to Belaga town. Even Bakun, 37km upriver, can only be reached by boat.

The local people through their elected representatives and community chiefs have pleaded with the government to build a road to Bakun so it could connect to the highway to Tubau and then to Bintulu.

"Trading is dependent only on the longhouse communities upriver such as Uma Jabeng, Apan, Kejamaan Lasa, Lahanan, Kejanan Meh and Long Mitik, besides the townsfolks and occasional visitors and tourists," Penghulu Neo said.

Only isolated town

Hulu Rajang MP Billy Abit Joo acknowledged that without the new information communication technology (ICT) resource centre, launched in Belaga on Tuesday, Belaga would continue to remain "the only remote and isolated town in Sarawak."

He said he had brought up in parliament a request for a road to link Belaga with the rest of Sarawak.

"Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud has promised that the government will build a road to Bakun. Let's hope the project will not be postponed again," said Penghulu Ajang Sirek, a Kepayan, at the opening of a ICT resource centre.

Penghulu Neo said Belaga is still without a commercial bank and a hospital.

"We will be quite happy even if Bank Pertanian or Bank Simpanan Nasional can establish its presence here," he said.

The local dispensary has been left without a doctor for two years and more serious cases are being referred to Kapit General Hospital which is four hours by river, passing the Pelagus Rapids.

But not all are bad news in Belaga!

Of late, there has been growing interest among foreign tourists in nature, adventure and culture tours in the upper Belaga district.

Licensed tourist guide John Belarik told malaysiakini that tourism probably offers a new economic opportunity for Belaga and he hoped the state tourism authorities, especially the Sarawak Tourism Board and Tourism Malaysia, would do more to promote the region's rich biodiversity, culture and nature.