A village of about 15,000 people sitting in the Sembulan River sticks out like a sore thumb in the heart of buzzing Kota Kinabalu. It is surrounded by new hotels, resorts, a golf course, banks, office and shopping complexes.
But a 45m-ringgit ($14.2m) river beautification project is spearheading changes to rundown Kampung Sembulan. And efforts are underway to clean up the village of about 400 wooden houses built on stilts.
Chief Minister Musa Aman recently launched the first phase of the Sembulan river park which has a footpath that runs along half of the 1.6km (one-mile) river in Sadong Jaya to Kampung Sembulan Lama.
Money for the project has come from the federal government. The first phase designed by Shim Sie Hong, an architect, cost 24m ringgit and is modeled on the one of the Singapore River.
The well-lit park with fountains and music filling the air is the first to be monitored by a police kiosk through 47 close-circuit television cameras round the clock under a safe city programme of Kota Kinabalu City Hall.
There are quays for boats and people can take boat rides along the river.
The park caters for all including the handicapped. People in wheelchairs can move around it easily and so can mothers pushing their babies in prams. It has a toilet for handicapped people and a room for mothers to change their baby’s diapers.
Continue reading (Incl. Pics) at: Making Sembulan clean and beautiful
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