Help the Indigenous Community of Sarawak

Being able to gain access to a source of safe and clean water is a monumental problem faced by many communities of different countries all around the world, namely developing countries such as Malaysia. An example of one of the many communities facing this problem is the village of Kampung Sungai Sebatu.

Kampung Sungai Sebatu is a small rural village of the local Iban indigenous community or also known as the Sea Dayaks. The village is situated on the borders of Miri city, in the state of Sarawak which is the only state out of two on Borneo Island in Malaysia. The village is located within an oil palm plantation where the community lives in a traditional long house that currently accommodates approximately 20 families. There is no information regarding this village online but can be located on Google Maps by searching, "Sk Sungai Sebatu Baran" which is a primary school situated next to the village that holds only 10 pupils currently.

Currently, there is no supply of electricity or water by the government to the village nor is there any telephone line and therefore, the village is off grid and water is of their main concern. Despite submitting numerous appeals to the government for aid, their efforts were to no avail. Being an indigenous community, they have been relying heavily on a nearby river and collected rain water to carry out their daily activities for washing and consumption respectively.

According to the villagers, the worst dry season will befall upon them in the months of February that will last through April and from August through October. In this period, the village faces drought and their sole consumable water source, collected rain water would have to be rationed. When the rain water finishes during the dry season, villagers would have to turn to other means such as consuming water from the nearby river if no help is provided. By then, the river water would have already been saturated with dirt and other substances from fertilizers or pesticides that are being used on the oil palm plantation that may harm the villagers’ health if consumed and going for showers in the river in that condition will give them rashes. The picture attached to this appeal is one of our members in a red shirt standing next to the river at a position where the water level is meant to be when there is no drought and is clearly visible how murky the water is.

To ease their hardships, the village chief came up to us personally and requested if we could help them get septic tanks to store more rain water when we visited them. The capacity that they have now is not enough for washing or consumption during drought and through this platform, we personally hope that we are able to help them raise RM9000 or approximately USD2200 in order to purchase ten 1000 gallons septic tanks that costs about RM600 to RM800 each plus transportation that is approximately about RM 1000. If we are able to raise more than RM9000, my team and I will promise to help more communities of such without any hesitation. Thank you in advance for your anticipated support.

We are a group of students that has formed a charity named Little Dumpling's Charity. Please do contact us for further clarification and enquiries at [email protected] so we can provide more insight information regarding the village itself too.

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