For the residents of the 14-door Iban longhouse in Kampung Abok Mawang, located 150km on the Kuching-Sri Aman Road, the one invaluable lesson they have learnt well is about the importance of self-reliance and initiative to make things better for themselves.

At the corner of every general elections, they heard promises that electricity from the state utility company would come to the longhouse, situated along the highway, soon. But those promises have remained largely unfulfilled.

Tired of waiting, the tuai rumah (village headman) Donald Martin and his anekbiaks (longhouse dwellers) decided to do it themselves, with help from others.

The brain behind the self-help project is Jacob Emang, 58, ( left ) a former senior education officer and now a businessman.

With help from a Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) research & development team, headed by lecturer Martin Anyi and his colleagues, and a Public Works Department (PWD) team, headed by engineer Martin Jemut and his friends from Kuching and Sri Aman, they planned for a community-based micro mini hydro electric project, using the river half a kilometer away from the longhouse near the foot of the Klingkang Range as the source to power the turbine.

Labour was provided on a gotong-royong basis by the 200 longhouse people.

Martin Anyi and his friends volunteered on weekends to help with the project, Martin Jemut and his friends provided essential materials and supervised the construction, and the longhouse folks supplied the electrical wires.

The materials for the design and construction of the turbine came from Jacob Emang, who initiated the project to provide light for his own community in Kampung Abok.

There is no electricity for villages on a 60km stretch along the highway after Balai Ringin to Kampung Ran.

Promised by Najib

Deputy Prime Minister Abdul Najib Tun Razak promised the longhouse people during the last state election campaign in Pasar Lachau, 180km Kuching-Serian Road, in May 2006 they would be able to enjoy electricity soon.

To this day, state utility company Sesco had yet to extend electricity to the villages in the area.

Thanks to the spirit of self-reliance and self-initiative, persistency and devotion of efficient co-ordinated teamwork, the micro mini hydro project is able to supply 100kv output to benefit 200 people in Kampung Abok Mawang on a round-the-clock basis.

Now every bilik (door) in the longhouse has round-the-clock supply of electricity sufficient for lighting, for their refrigerators, TV and ironing.

Jacob told Malaysiakini he is working on a bigger project with help from what he described as his barefoot engineers Ziegler anak Kasaw and consultant Adrian Lasimbang from PACOS, Sabah to extend the hydro electricity to more villages in the area.

This time, he is relying on a workforce of some 600 people to come up with another 100kv power from Sanjau River in Sg Pulau.

The villagers are appealing to the elected representative of the area for help in supplying the required materials, and at the same time to the DPM to provide electricity from an alternative source, if Sesco is unable to extend power supply to the area.