Belaga folks await tourists at Bakun Dam

For the people of Belaga, among the most remote districts in Malaysia, they are looking upon the Bakun Hydroelectric Project to generate a new economic activity for them - which is, tourism.

Belaga assemblyman Liwan Lagang said the completion of the project, slated to be in December this year, would change the landscape in the district.

"There will be a lot of new islands created (once the water level at the Bakun Dam are raised), providing new potentials for the people here to promote them and be involved in the tourism industry," he told Bernama in an interview recently.

He said tourism activities had existed in Belaga but had yet to achieve an economic scale that could yield greater benefits for the locals.

The 205m-high Bakun hydroelectric dam which creates a reservoir of 695 sq km, is the second tallest concrete rock-filled dam in the world. It will have the capacity to generate 2,400MW of power.

The Bakun catchment area situated at the Balui River, about 37km upstream of Belaga town, covers an area of about 14,759 sq km, which is about 12 percent of the state and equal in size to Kelantan.

Homestay at resettlement scheme

Several longhouses, particularly within the Sungai Asap Resettlement Scheme have only started promoting homestay service in recent years and are still learning about the trade.

The resettlement scheme was established in 1998 to accommodate about 15,000 people who had to be moved out from their villages in Balui River, Belaga, to make way for the implementation of the hydroelectric project.

Uma Belor is one of the longhouses at the resettlement scheme which offers homestay packages, in which 16 of their 101 rooms are being converted into guest rooms.

The longhouse village security and development committee (JKKK) secretary, Nora Igang said the project, called ‘Leo Dian Homestay’, was meant to generate new sources of income for the villagers, who are of the Kayan ethnic group.

"We also want to contribute more significantly to the development of the country's tourism sector, especially when they are a lot more that the people can learn about us and our culture," she added.

- Bernama