Bali Kids No Longer Have to Swim to School
The Bali government has built a bridge in Lokapaksa village in Buleleng to help students and teachers from SDN 5 Ringdikit. For the past 30 years, the students and teachers residing in Lokapaksa village have had to swim through tough currents to get to school.
The village chief and local residents repeatedly asked the government to build a bridge for them. A viral video of students and teachers trying to make their way through the river caused public criticism of the government. Thanks to the video, the Bali government decided to build an emergency bridge last year.
The emergency bridge was constructed out of concrete blocks. However, it did not hold strongly enough and was destroyed by flood. After the unfortunate incident, the Bali Province Department of Public Works created a wooden suspension bridge with steel ropes. The bridge is 30 metres long and 1.25 metres wide. “The bridge has been underway since early March of this year with a total budget of Rp.150 million ( US$11,200) and is targeted to be finished within two months. The work progress has reached 90 percent,” explained Wayan Sumindra, who acts as the project initiator.
Although the bridge is small, it can resist strong currents. Sumindra explained that it is probably best to take turns when using the bridge. He added that the bridge currently can hold only ten people at a time.
There are around 42 students in Lokapaksa village who need to get to school each day. With the bridge, students will only need five minutes to get there. Before the bridge was built, students sometimes took an alternative route on bikes, but it sometimes took 30 minutes or more just to get to class.