Damaged bridge forces Sabah villagers to wade through river instead

FMT Reporters

-03 Apr 2024, 01:26 PM

A pregnant woman is among many villagers who chose to wade across the Ligawu river as they fear that the suspension bridge will collapse.

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Residents fear that the suspension bridge across the Ligawu river will collapse soon if it is not repaired. (Daily Express pic)

PETALING JAYA: Residents from seven villages in Ranau, Sabah, have been forced to find other ways of crossing the Ligawu river after the suspension bridge was badly damaged by floods last January.

In one instance, a villager captured a video of a pregnant woman and her husband opting to wade through the river rather than use the bridge, which only a handful still dare to use.

Residents of the villages in Paginatan want the bridge, which was left tilted by the floods, to be repaired immediately or rebuilt as a whole, reported Daily Express.

They said this would make life easier for the villagers, including students who have to cross the river to get to school.

A resident of Kampung Lungkidau said 5,000 residents used to rely on the bridge to cross the river, including those from villages such as Kampung Paginatan, Lungkidau, Toporo, Bunakon, Torikon, Soborong and part of Kampung Kigiwit.

The villager, who declined to be named, said the bridge was the main route to Ranau town, the Paginatan health clinic and for students to get to school.

The bridge was also used to transport agricultural produce after another concrete bridge across the river, built in September 2016, collapsed two years ago.

The villager said the pregnant woman wading through the river with her husband was not an isolated event, as other villagers often do so as well.

“Fortunately, the water level of the Liwagu river is currently shallow due to the drought and does not flow fast. Otherwise, how could she cross the river to get treatment at the clinic or get to town?

“Therefore, before anything happens, the parties concerned must take action,” she was quoted as saying.

She urged Paginatan assemblyman Abidin Madingkir and Ranau MP Jonathan Yasin to rebuild the concrete bridge, failing which she said “don’t ask for votes when it’s election time”.