Proposed Projects – Spring Programme 2007 Malaysia

Topics

• Community Phase
  • Kindergarten Construction – Kg Paus, Ranau District
  • Gravity Water Feed System - Kg Serudong Laut, Tawau District
  • Gravity Water Feed System - Ranau District
  • School Library - Mantanani Island, Kota Belud
  Environment Phase
  • Danum Valley – Bridge and Camp Construction
  • Imbak Canyon – Trail & Infrastructure Development
• Adventure Phase
  • Trekking and Diving

Kindergarten Construction – Kg Paus, Ranau District
Kg Paus is a small community on the Kegibangan River mid way between Telupid and Ranau who have been exposed to a Raleigh team previously.  In early 2006 a project team spent 3 weeks within the community helping to repair a gravity water feed system, ensuring a steady supply of fresh water into the village.  This was such a successful project it was decided to try and go back into the community in the future.  Currently there is a primary school within the village but no pre-school arrangements – these are very ad hoc and hence do not provide under 6 year olds with the best start to their education.  It has therefore been proposed to build a small pre-school building for the community and working with PACOS Trust (a grass roots community based charity) to help the village to organize themselves to train and sustain at least one if not two teachers for the school.  PACOS Trust’s aim is to assist remote indigenous communities to improve their quality of life, help with land rites issues and encourage a continuation of traditional culture and ways of life. 

The community survive by subsistence farming and some rubber tapping to earn a small income.  The team will live in the small community hall within the centre of the community and will be fully immersed in the Kadazan Dusun way of life.  This will involve traditional dancing and teams will have the opportunity to see and experience life in a rural village at first hand.  The project is being sponsored by Nestle who Raleigh have worked with extensively before, building several other pre-school buildings around Sabah. 

Gravity Water Feed System - Kg Serudong Laut, Tawau District
Kg Serudong Laut is a very small and isolated community south of the town of Tawau and only several kilometers from the Indonesian Kalimantan border.  It is a 90 minute fast boat ride to reach the village from Tawau starting in the sea and heading up winding rivers past local fishermen and boats.  The river is teeming with life in particular large crocodiles.  The village has shrunk over the past 20 years with many occupants being resettled near Tawau in their own community called Serudong Baru (New Serudong).  However a core of people have remained to tend their land and eek out an existence as generations of their predecessors have before them.  The community are of Murut origin, who once were feared head hunters and warriors.  They have now been settled for several generations in static communities predominantly agriculturally based.  The village is on the edge of the Serudong Forest Management area which is managed by Sabah Forestry Department who have a large station there. 

Working with the Forestry Dept, the Raleigh team will install a new gravity water system.  Currently the village collect their water from rain tanks and during the dry season have to resort to taking water from the polluted river.  The village is spread out along the banks of the river and hence there are several technical problems to be overcome – in particular how to get the piping across the river and a track with about a 100 metre span.  In addition the terrain to the source is arduous and steep; teams will have to overcome many logistical challenges to complete the project. 

Gravity Water Feed System - Ranau District
Working in partnership with the local parliamentary representative and sponsored by Coca Cola, it is intended to construct one new gravity water supply system and refurbish another.  Currently many of the communities in the Ranau District are lacking any form of water supply – it is usually collected from rainfall into large tanks or drums or carried from distant water courses.  Ranau is a large district which includes Mount Kinabalu and the market garden area of Kundassang.  The people tend to be from a traditional Muslim background and survive on subsistence farming and some rubber tapping.  The community selected for the new system is Kg Miruru which is approximately 30km from the town of Telupid in central Sabah.  This is an extremely poor community who have a very rudimentary system currently which has only 2 very poor outlets which often dry up.  It is planned to install a complete new system to a source 6 km away which will prove to be a very challenging technical and logistical project.  The second community will receive additional piping and a new source to complement their existing system.  This is Kg Sesongdotong approximately 15km from the community of Kundassang.  The new installation will take 6 weeks with the refurbishment 3 weeks. 

Construction of a gravity feed water system involves a detailed survey of the village and area to ascertain where piping and taps should be placed as well as locating a suitable source.  Sources are generally several kilometres from the kampung and will be in hard to reach areas.  Once a source has been identified, it is damned using wire cages filled with rocks and/or cement.  Piping is then laid to several reservoir tanks which enable a head of pressure to be established as well as to cope with periods of high demand.  From these tanks, piping is then laid into the kampung; this will usually involve digging the pipe into shallow trenches to avoid it being damaged.  Finally connectors and taps are installed as the system is established within the community to provide the most efficient supply.  During the whole process the local community assist with the work and are educated on how to maintain their system in order to provide a sustainable solution to their water requirements.

School Library - Mantanani Island, Kota Belud
Mantanani Island is approximately 2 – 3 hour boat ride from Kota Kinabalu, northwards or alternatively approximately 1 hour from Kota Belud.  It is a very beautiful island which houses a small fishing community.  Due to its remoteness the island is underdeveloped although there is a hotel at one end of the island and tourists occasionally visit one of its beaches.  However the community is extremely poor.  In particular the primary school on the island has just landed the unenviable title of the school with the worst results in the whole of Malaysia.  This is not through lack of energy of the teachers but due to the lack of resources there.  Since the only secondary school for older pupils is on the mainland, many children who do badly at primary school simply do not progress any further and simply remain at home.  It is the aim of the Raleigh team to build a small school library building which will provide a dedicated building and resources to improving the children’s literacy.  Currently the school has a few dusty old shelves in the caretakers’ building which are not used at all.  HSBC has confirmed it will sponsor the building and supply of books and educational material.  This will be part of an ongoing partnership between Raleigh and HSBC that has seen many similar projects completed over the past few years.

In addition the island’s shores are home to many turtles – the beaches are used by turtles to lay their eggs but also juvenile turtles seem to enjoy the comparative safety of the inshore reef.  Raleigh is starting to explore the possibility of working with Marine Research Foundation, a locally based organisation, who would like to carry out more research on the turtles.  Ultimately the foundation would like to involve the local community in protecting these turtles and the building of the school is also seen as a first step in cooperation between the village and outside organisations.  In addition to the turtles there are several dugongs, or sea cows, in the local area, one of which has been seen just off the beach playing with local children. 

Danum Valley – Bridge and Camp Construction
Danum Valley is a highly protected world-renowned conservation and research area famous for its rich biodiversity and abundant wildlife. The 438 sq. km. Danum Valley Conservation Area provides facilities for research, education and wilderness recreation in one of the Sabah's last strongholds of undisturbed lowland rainforest.
Sited beside the Segama River, the Research Centre is located 81 km west of Lahad Datu and more than 20 km from any other habitation - a truly remote setting. Research efforts have revealed a tremendous variety of plants and the full range of Sabah's lowland fauna, including such rare and endangered species as the Sumatran rhino, banteng (tembadau), elephant, clouded leopard, orangutan and proboscis monkey. Birdlife is equally varied with some 275 species recorded to date in the area.
The project group will help complete the construction of a hanging suspension bridge started by a Raleigh team in late 2005.  The purpose of the bridge is to increase access into the conservation area for scientists in order that they can carry out further research.  The site is approximately 1 hours trek from the Danum Valley Field Centre and the group will live in a minimal impact jungle camp close to the work site.  The other main project there is to build a satellite camp site near the bridge in order to allow scientists to base themselves there whilst conducting research.  This will mean that they will be able explore deeper and longer into the area.  This will also involve developing further the trail network on both sides of the bridge.  Additionally, the project team will assist international scientists with various conservation projects and receive rainforest education in this amazing jungle setting.

Imbak Canyon – Trail & Infrastructure Development
Imbak Canyon is the last remaining untouched and relatively unexplored area of Sabah. Less than 200 people have ever entered this virgin primary jungle area while the last research team discovered a new tree species. The region is home to wildlife including elephants, orangutans and 100’s of rare bird species. Yayasan Sabah (the concessionary) now wants to reserve this area as a natural gene bank to help protect future biodiversity of the whole region and has asked Raleigh International to play a major role in the development of this area.

In early 2004, a Raleigh International project team worked closely with the staff of Yayasan Sabah to plan the location and type of necessary infrastructure needed to protect and allow access to the pristine protected area of Imbak Canyon. The first stage included mapping the area to determine points of interest, possible trail networks, sources of water and best locations for a field centre.  The second expedition to Imbak in late 2004 started putting in place basic infrastructure including a Ranger’s camp, visitors’ accommodation and basic trails.  This is the first permanent structure built as part of the master development plan for this conservation area.  The infrastructure has been gradually expanded by a number of Raleigh teams during the two expeditions in 2005.  In addition a new trail as been recce’d along the ridges and into the centre of the canyon by groups during expedition 05G in late 2005.

The next phase of this exciting project is to further expand the infrastructure including finishing the field centre complex, developing the newly recce’d trails into the canyon for researchers and upgrading existing tracks to a waterfall and jungle camp.  In addition one of the key priorities identified was the need for a bridge crossing the Imbak River to the entrance of the conservation area. In the dry season this river can easily be crossed by foot. However, during the rainy season the river often becomes swollen cutting off access to the conservation area. This would be approximately a 200ft span hanging suspension bridge to be constructed from scratch.  This bridge will enable scientists to access the canyon for research purposes as well as enabling a gravity feed water system to be fed across the river into the field centre.

Adventure Projects

All adventure groups will be involved in a SCUBA diving conservation program in Tungku Abdul Rahman Marine Park in partnership with Borneo Divers and Sabah Parks.  The team will spend 4 days doing their PADI Open Water diving qualification followed by 2 days of either reef survey work or an underwater clean up.  The group will assist the Sabah Parks Marine Research Unit by collecting data (coral condition, fish and invertebrate counts) for the international Reef Check Project.  During this time they will live on their very own paradise island from where the diving is carried out.

The adventure phase will finish with an opportunity to climb Mt. Kinabalu to watch the sunrise from the top of the highest peak in Southeast Asia.  This exhilarating climb passes through five different temperate zones from a dense rainforest to a barren alpine landscape.  The mountain is 4096m high and is certainly no walk in the park.  It takes approximately 24 hours to climb to the summit and back down with a few hours of sleep in the middle.  However exhausting it may feel at the time, the views of the sun rising on a clear day are amazing and well worth all the sweat and tears to get there.