Building Better, Safer Longhouses

May 25, 2007 10:02 AM

By Edward Stephen Subeng

SIBU, May 25 (Bernama) -- The Gawai Dayak festival on June 1 will be something special for longhouse chief or "tuai rumah" Unja anak Bess and another 15 families in Melanggan, an Iban farming village located some 60 km from here.

These Iban families are looking forward to celebrate this joyful occasion in the comfort of their new and better-designed longhouse. This longhouse is expected to be fully completed by the end of this month.

In April 21, 2005, a noon fire destroyed their 51-door longhouse, burning everything to ashes including their freshly-harvested rice.

Since then some of the 51 affected Iban families have been staying in a transit longhouse while others put up with relatives.

Construction of a longhouse for the remaining 35 Iban families will begin later this year.



HOUSING LOAN

Sarawak Minister for Urban Development Datuk Sri Wong Soon Koh and Datuk Robert Lau Hoi Chew, who is the Deputy Housing and Local Government Minister each contributed RM15,000 for the longhouse construction.

Wong is also the State Assemblyman for Bawang Assan and Lau, the MP for Sibu.

And only recently, the fire victims were informed that their housing loan application for the construction of a longhouse has been approved.

State Housing Minister Datuk Abang Johari conveyed the good news during his visit to meet the fire victims.

Abang Johari said each family would be eligible for RM10,000 loan, plus another RM5,000 if they incorporate the ministry's latest fire break feature in each family unit.

He said these fire victims are the first in the state to enjoy the new quantum as the Federal Government has agreed to top up its annual RM5 million contribution for the Longhouse Loan Scheme Fund by another RM5 million.

Abang Johari said the Dayak community should thank Lau for getting the Federal Government to contribute to the fund since 2005.

The fund was initiated by the State Government in 1976.



CONTRIBUTION

Meanwhile, Lau said the extra contribution is vital as each year there are some 10 cases of longhouse fire apart from the spiralling cost of building materials.

State Housing Ministry statistics show that there are some 4,500 longhouses in Sarawak.

A typical longhouse has around 20 families. In Sarawak the size of a longhouse is determined by the number of individual family units. If 20 families stay in a longhouse, then the structure is a 20-door longhouse.

Abang Johari said the loan is for longhouse renovations and repairs as well as for construction of new longhouses. Priority is given to fire victims.



HOUSING DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION

According to Sarawak Housing Development Corporation's (SHDC) Project Development Head, Sapri Ahmad, before February this year, the loan had been fixed at RM10,000 for each family.

At 5.5 per cent interest, the repayment is RM64.00 monthly.

"Under the Third to Eighth Malaysian Plan, the Government had spent RM27.286 million for construction of 279 longhouses with a total of 6,420 rooms", he said.

He said the majority of successful applicants are from the Betong Division. They had been allocated RM7.8 million to build 82 longhouses with a total of 1,743 rooms.

"Those from the Sri Aman Division came next with 41 applications (for 721 rooms) for loans amounting to RM3 million."

Last year, there were 55 successful applications. The Betong Division accounted for the most with 17 longhouses (388 rooms) at the cost of RM2.3 million, followed by Sri Aman Division with eight longhouses (112 rooms) at RM604,274.

For this year, SHDC has allocated RM5 million to build 23 new longhouses with a combined total of 504 rooms.

Of the amount, RM2 million has been approved for eight longhouses (200 rooms) for Betong Division followed by Sibu with five longhouses (104 rooms) at the cost of RM1.0 million.

Sapri said there are still 544 applications (11,749 rooms) awaiting approval, which would cost the corporation some RM11 million.

"The majority of the applications are from Sibu (104 longhouses) followed by Betong (98), Sarikei (92) and Miri (72).



LOAN ELIGIBILITY

According to Abang Johari, the criteria for loan approval is based on the applicant's ability to make repayment.

"They must have a stable source of income like being employed in oil palm plantations. Now such plantations are quite widespread in the state".

Abang Johari said even the Penans can apply for the loan.

He said there were times when it was difficult to collect the monthly repayment when the folks concerned had no income.

"But we are flexible on this. We will send our officers to collect from them after the rice harvesting season.

"In the last two years we managed to recover a lot of outstanding loans due to the good market price of rubber. In the future, when we have more funds and no repayment problems, we may provide loans for construction of individual homes like that in the Malay kampung.

Sapri said to build a single-family unit in a wooden longhouse would cost some RM43,000.



LONGHOUSE DESIGN

He said the SHDC has come out with two longhouse designs for those interested in either a single and double-storey building.

Sapri assures that the traditional longhouse feature like the "ruai" or covered common gallery for the holding of meetings, celebrations or funerals would be maintained in both designs.

"But we are expanding on the functionality by incorporating two toilets in each unit. Most family unit now have one toilet. We have also come out with a better drainage system to ensure a cleaner environment."

He said the incorporation of the fire outbreak safety feature in each family unit is mandatory. This is a 200mm-thick hollow brick wall built up to the roof after every single family unit.

"When a fire begins from a family unit, the wall will stop it from spreading to the next unit," he said.

Sapri said another safety standard is the airway built after the living room in each family unit to act as another ventilation channel or an escape route.

Abang Johari said with such fire safety features, insurance companies may be persuaded to provide coverage for fire incidents at the longhouses.



-- BERNAMA