KIMANIS, Jan 13 — The Pasir Pimping beach which boasts calm, serene and beautiful stretch of white sandy beach with crystal clear blue waters, is among the hidden gems of Sabah which has the potential to become a major tourist destination and to help boost the local economy.
However, a Bernama check found that stalls erected along the beach, located in the Membakut state constituency and about 30 kilometres from Beaufort town, were sadly in dilapidated condition with existing problems of basic infrastructure such as power supply and inadequate parking bays for visitors have yet to be resolved.
According to Pasir Pimping Tourism, Recreation and Traders Association chairman Harun Pata, the traders in the area faced problems in terms of basic infrastructure such as power supply and parking bays.
“Our issue here is about the infrastructure, for example, we need power supply to help traders to use electrical goods such as refrigerators,” said Harun, 68, to Bernama recently.
He said there were 57 stalls operating along the beach, but lack of infrastructure had posed problems to both traders and visitors.
“Usually on the weekends there will be many people coming here to unwind and the parking will be a problem as visitors have to park their vehicles on the road shoulder and this obstructing the traffic flow,” he said, adding that the stalls were opened in 2013.
One of the food traders, Ramli Mohd Amin, 64, said most of the traders here had to fork out their own money to repair and maintain the wooden stalls.
He said the location of the stalls near the beach with strong winds could easily damage the structure.
“To repair the stall is quite costly and some of us (traders) are using our own money to do that, but if possible we would also like to get help with maintenance cost, so that more visitors will be interested in coming here,” he said.
Both, the Membakut and Bongawan state constituencies are involved in the upcoming Kimanis parliamentary by-election which is set on January 18. — Bernama
