TUTONG

VILLAGERS of Kampung Benutan have expressed their concern on poor accessibility.

The village’s chief Hj Nor Alimin Sulong said that the village lacks basic ammenities such as roads, electricity and phone lines.

“The villagers have expressed these three main concerns especially during a flood. There are other issues of course such as family problems and misunderstandings,” he said.

Hj Nor Alimin added that because the area is remote, it takes awhile to get immediate help.

“Whenever there is an accident, it would be difficult to get immediate help especially when every method of communication is down,” said the 63-year-old.

He added, “It’s hard to get the phone lines fixed here. We don’t have many (phone) towers here which may be due to the decreasing number of residents.”

Hj Nor Alimin said that most of the residents have moved to the Kampung Bukit Beruang National Housing Scheme.

“The most important accessibility is the road. On one side, the roads have been repaired. As for the other side, it will insyaAllah be repaired as well in the near future.

“We have seen quite a few improvements in this village and more improvements will be made soon insyaAllah. This is all thanks to the initiative taken by the Government of His Majesty Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mui’izzaddien Waddaulah, the Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam,” said the village chief.

A villager of Kampong Benutan, who did not wish to be named, agreed that accessibility is one of the major concerns for his family.

“I’ve lived here for quite awhile. My family and I enjoy the area as it is quiet and away from town. However we’re just concerned when there’s a flood,” he said.

“We don’t want to move so we’ve taken precautionary measures to ensure that our house won’t be damaged when it floods. We also stock up on food incase it’s hard for us to drive around the village to get any,” the villager added.

The retired civil servant said that he hopes more phone towers will be installed around the area.

“I hope something can be done to ensure that our phone lines will always work. If we are stuck at home, atleast we can communicate with the outside world and update our relatives,” he said.

The Brunei Times