Bina leads and entourage consisting members of BEM executive Council and the Mets Lawas committee in inspecting the eroded land near the riverbank.
MIRI (April 17): The Borneo Evangelical Mission (BEM) Sarawak is urgently calling on the Sarawak government to tackle erosion issue along the Lawas Riverbank, which is causing damage to the infrastructure of the Malaysia Evangelical Theological Seminary (Mets) at Lawas Mission campus.
BEM Sarawak president Revd Bina Agong, in a statement recently, said the erosion of the Lawas Riverbank has been going on for some time and is slowly destroying the campus’ land, buildings and infrastructures.
“To date, the erosion has already washed away the first Seminary’s church that was built in the early 1960, two student hostels, a football field, a medical clinic building and a substantial portion of the Seminary lands where these buildings were constructed.
“One existing college student hostel is now standing in a dangerous and precarious situation, getting nearer to the edge of the bank of the Lawas River due to the ongoing erosion.
“As a result of the erosion, about four to five acres of the Seminary land is now totally lost under the Lawas River,” he said.
An aerial view of the seminary land.
He noted that the medical clinic was the first clinic in Lawas that was run by the BEM missionary doctors and nurses until the government built its own clinic.
“Therefore, we wish to humbly urge the government and relevant agencies to immediately look into the problems and give urgent assistance to prevent further erosion of the Lawas Riverbank,” said Bina.
The area affected by the erosion.
He also appealed to the government to assist in building the infrastructures, including constructing a waterfront along the bank of Lawas River leading to the Seminary land, which is believed to be able to prevent further loss of land due to the ongoing erosion.
He believed that failure to tackle the erosion in time would result in the possibility of the nearby houses and buildings near the riverbank being washed away soon.
