Local contractor delivers a PETRONAS project to benefit the rural community

The task of building a modern school hostel in Paloh, an isolated village in a remote coastal area in central Sarawak, to provide access to education for communities in rural Sarawak, is a daunting one.

In 2016 decided to take up the challenge and in syndication with the Education Department, decided on SK Orang Kaya Muda Pakeri Paloh to embark on its Asrama Harian Luar Bandar (AHLB) project.

The project is an essential education facility that would allow the majority of the children studying at SK Orang Kaya Muda Pakeri Paloh to pursue an education in a more conducive learning environment.

The school has 121 students and 16 teachers, with 56 students staying in the dormitory while the other 65 students are staying in the neighbouring villages – Kampung Paloh, Kampung Kedang and Kampung Berangan.

The existing dilapidated hostels were built in 1985 and can only cater up to 56 students. The new hostels – one each for male and female students – can accommodate up to 120 students and are well-equipped with an administration office, dining hall, sick bays, two warden rooms, showers, toilets, washing areas, kitchen, kitchen store and surau.

The AHLB project was awarded to a Sarawak construction company EPR (Kuching) Sdn Bhd in February 2018, and in July this year, the project was completed.

“Today, walking for miles to get to school is a thing of the past for pupils at SK Orang Kaya Muda Pakeri Paloh. We are proud and honoured to be part of making this dream a reality,” said EPR (Kuching) Chief Executive Officer, Shahrir Iman Suib.

EPR (Kuching) bid for the project, which is one of

corporate social responsibility

(CSR) initiatives, despite being fully aware of the risks, perils and logistic challenges that it had to face to deliver on time.

The project was very challenging as the school is located on a remote village off the coast near Daro in the central region and only accessible by boat, creating numerous logistic challenges.

“We had to bring in and mobilise two units of our own three-tonne lorries, two excavators, and one mixer truck for the whole duration of the project,” Shahrir told The Borneo Post. He added that there is a jetty in Paloh for boats to deliver light goods and passengers; however, there is no barge landing yard available within that area. So, they have to be resourceful to deliver the material from the barge to the yard.

“From the landing yard to the site is about

6km, about 20 minutes of travel if there was a proper road. However, the existing road cannot support heavy vehicles, so for any major delivery, we have to build a makeshift road along the beach to get to the site. As a result, one delivery to the site took about half a day,” he elaborated. Shahrir said 70 per cent of the general construction materials came from Sibu while the other 30 per cent, the more specialised items like roofing materials, were brought in from Kuching. Senior Engineer with EPR (Kuching), Mohamad Saiffudeen shared his experience, being onsite for 17 months as a construction manager.a “We have to ensure our working hours are not affected by the poor weather condition in order to deliver the project on time. So we worked at night during the monsoon period as the weather was better at night. We have to do two shifts every day, with workers working eight hours per shift to compensate for the rainy days,” he said. Mohamad added that the transfer of building materials from the transport barge to the landing area on the beach have to be managed carefully as well.

“The transfer can only be done during low tide to avoid the materials getting submerged in seawater. The sand cannot get into contact with seawater as the salt content would render the sand unusable for concrete. We also had to make sure the materials did not get swept away by the tide,” Mohamad said.

Due to the remote location of the site, the telecommunications connection was quite poor. “There is a telco tower, but it is powered by a generator, which often breaks down. I had to take the boat to the middle of the sea between Paloh and the mainland to get better reception for communication on urgent matters,” he said.

Another challenge was to train the villagers employed for the project, as they were mostly unskilled workers.

“There were no skilled workers