Aid to ease water flow at rural village

Thankful for help: (From left) Hopes Malaysia co-founder Khay Inn, Wong and Lee with the mock cheque from Star Foundation.

KOTA KINABALU: Star Foundation has presented RM42,000 to Hopes Malaysia to finance the upgrading of the piped water system in a rural village in Kota Belud.

The funding will be used to upgrade a 4.5km-long water pipe connecting to a quarry catchment in Kampung Podos located within the Kadamaian constituency and about 50 minutes drive from Kota Belud town.

Hopes Malaysia, which is based in Sabah, focuses on community development projects to meet basic needs of underprivileged rural communities.

According to Hopes Malaysia co-founder and executive director June Wong, the Kampung Podos water piping system has not been upgraded since it was built in the 1970s and was now suffering leakages, resulting in water shortage to some 950 villagers from 115 households there.“Kampung Podos villagers, who are mostly rubber tappers, lamen­ted about having to take turns to use the water especially during peak time in the mornings and evenings.“Sometimes they have to depend on rainwater which they collect in water tanks behind their house.

“Things get more difficult during the dry spell,” added founder and executive-director Sam Lee.

The upgrading project is expected to start in the middle of July and will take about a month to complete.

“We will do it with volunteers as well as villagers.

“The plan is to expand the pipe’s size, so more water can flow into each house,” he added.

Kampung Podos is one of five villages in Kota Belud identified by Hopes Malaysia for its gravity water programmes for this year’s batch estimated to cost around RM150,000.

“Initially, when we first started the CSO in 2016, we helped villagers in Kampung Tudan, Kota Belud with their piped water system and we continued assisting them in mushroom cultivation.

“Same thing for Kampung Podos. We will observe for a period of time on how the whole water system is maintained by the villagers and then move forward to uplift themselves by designing an agriculture project to fit them, which in turn will help them financially,” said Lee.

The Star Sabah bureau chief Muguntan Vanar presented a mock cheque to Hopes Malaysia officials yesterday at the bureau office here.

Star Foundation is the charitable arm of Star Media Group aimed at delivering meaningful initiatives with lasting outcomes to a diverse group of beneficiaries.

For more information, visit starfoundation.com.my.