MIRI, Dec 8 — Long Ikang residents are fearful that the next episode of flooding during this monsoon period may see their longhouse swept into the Baram River just metres away, said Peter Kallang.

The chairman of non-governmental organisation SAVE Rivers claimed following a visit there that the second gabion wall built on the banks to prevent further erosion is compromised.

“We have a very dangerous and precarious situation at hand. Urgent action is necessary before the next flood triggers the erosion, which will sweep our home into the Baram River.

“We appeal to the authority to take immediate and permanent measures to resolve the problem,” he told The Borneo Post.

He said the second gabion wall was completed about a year ago at a cost of RM200,000, but has “proven to be as ineffective as the first one” constructed in the settlement.

Long Ikang, a Kenyah-Kayan settlement , is about a 40-minute boat ride downriver from Long Banyok.

Severe erosion over the past two decades along a 3.5km-stretch of the bank fronting the settlement has left one of the four longhouses there, the 10-door Kenyah longhouse Uma Kaeng, a mere three metres from the river’s edge.

A decade ago, the longhouse was more than 15 metres from the river’s edge.

The residents had even relocated their 42-year-old chapel to about two kilometres from the bank after it nearly slipped into the river. — The Borneo Post