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Well, like it or not, ready for it or not, the road to Bario now seems to be a firm fixture. During a dialogue session with YB Dr. Judson Tagal, held in Miri on Sunday 23rd February, we were informed that the existing logging road from Lawas to Batu Buli is to be extended a further 12 kilometres to Pa' Ukat and Bario via the proposed Pulung Tau National Park. We understand that the road will be constructed by Samling. Once completed, the road is to be handed over to a Road Committee in Bario which will be responsible for its management and maintenance. The Internet Cafe is back online again but for a very limited time each day: from 14:00 to 16:00 only.
All the Bario telephones have not been working since 16th February, the one at the school being able to get incoming calls only. The airport telephone, well, it works in its usual, sporadic fashion. The Satellite people came to Bario to fix them but were not able to conduct repairs because the Telekoms chaps did not come!
The Internet Cafe has been down and out for some time now, and the short-term scenario is quite bleak. Currently, they are unable to identify the exact nature of their problem, whether they are having a hardware problem, a server problem, or a connection problem! And they cannot get any real answers until all three respective technicians visit Bario synchronously! The Telekoms chappie turned up, again. Fixed all the telephones, again. How long before the lines go down again, as they surely will? When will someone at Telekoms Malaysia start to realise that merely treating the symptoms of the problem is time-consuming and not at all cost-effective? Other technical problems aside, a major constraint at Bario is a lack of power. The telephones at Bario are powered by battery power, and the batteries are re-charged using solar panels. Since both the batteries and the solar panels are smaller than they ought to be, the batteries get discharged very quickly and do not, on cloudy days, get enough of a charge for sustained operations. When using solar power, it is usual to have battery banks that will provide stored power for three to five days of autonomy during cloudy weather, a comfortable compromise between cost and function. Battery banks lacking this three-day spare capacity are going to get cycled fairly deeply on a regular basis, and this isn't good for battery life. Not only does one run out of power more frequently, one is also likely to severely damage the batteries! Bario is back to the good old bad old days once again, in splendid isolation, with all its telephone connections completely dysfunctional. Only the telephone at the secondary School now works, and the queue there is getting longer and longer. A rather strong complaint has been directed at the nearest Telekoms Malaysia office! |
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