MUKAH: Children aged seven years and above here may have to wait for a longer period to enjoy the comfort of swimming in a public pool unless the proposed Olympic-standard facility is to be implemented in this district soon.
They may also have to wait for indefinitely to participate in swimming competitions, even if they have the potential to get involved in that sport.
For now and in the next few years, Johannes July and Nell Adrian, both eight, and their cousins aged between seven and nine years, have to enjoy the comfort of swimming in Sungai Tellian only.
However, they can only swim when the water level is high and the water quality is good, normally during minor floods such as now and in the last few days.
Other than that, they just have to watch the water flow in Sungai Tellian, where its river mouth meets Batang Mukah, which subsequently meets the South China Sea. The water quality in Sungai Tellian during high tide is poor and dirty.
So, the children, all from Kampung Tellian Daya (Tellian Ulu), about 5km from town, do not swim in Sungai Tellian during most part of the year.
New Sarawak Tribune discovered that there is a private swimming pool owned by a hotel resort about 17km away from their home, but they do not go there because it is far and costly. It is located at Jalan Mukah-Balingian.
Perhaps, it is time for Mukah to have a public swimming pool, which can be used by the public for leisure or competition.
The people here are still waiting for the Olympic-standard swimming pool to be built here, as proposed by former Mukah MP Tan Sri Dr Muhammad Leo Michael Toyad, during his election campaign in 2013.
Kapitan Kang Boon Eong is among the people eagerly waiting for the public swimming pool to be built.
The 54-year-old community leader claimed that there has previously been an effort to apply for a public swimming pool here.
He further claimed that the explanation given by the Chief Minister’s Office for not approving the application was, Mukah must attain the status of a division first.
“No divisional status, no talk,” he told New Sarawak Tribune jokingly on Friday (Feb 5).
However, he said there was no sound on the matter now even after Mukah had attained a divisional status on March 1, 2002.
Meanwhile, he claimed that Tellian assemblyman and former Balingian assemblyman Yussibnosh Balo had already told Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah about the matter.
“Hopefully, the Sarawak government would approve a public swimming pool for Mukah as soon as possible, as this division needs it,” he said adding that, Mukah is also capable of producing good swimmers for the state.
On the privately-owned swimming pool 15km away at Jalan Mukah-Balingian, he said he paid RM600 annually to enable him and his family to use the facility.
According to him, for irregular customers, the fee charged by the swimming pool owner was about RM5 per person.
In a related development, Kang, who is a businessman, claimed that he saw the master plan on the development of sports facilities here.
He said that the completed Mukah Stadium was a Phase 1 project, while Phase 2 is yet to resume, and perhaps the public swimming pool is in Phase 3.
He also claimed that according to the master plan, the swimming pool planned for Mukah is an Olympic-standard one and covered (with a roof).
With the Olympic-standard swimming pool, Kang looked forward to seeing Mukah becoming a host for international competitions in future.
Kang believed that the elected representatives in Mukah had been trying their best to get a public swimming pool built here and hoped that they would continue to follow-up on the matter and get the public swimming pool implemented as soon as possible.
