Sg Kut - Pontoons

Photo by Steve Ling. Sg. Kut. Note the wood panels to help reinforce bank of the canal

Sungei Kut Muara is a village in Dalat District, Mukah Division, Sarawak. It is at the end of the Kut Canal where it meets the larger Igan River. At that point, the Igan river is fairly wide and passengers in the speed boats (RM25 per ride from Dalat to Sibu) would know that Sibu would soon be sighted.

At the Muara, there are two Primary Schools, Poi Yuk Chinese Primary School and St. Kevin Primary School.

The Kut Canal is only about 50 m wide and is only 8 miles or 9.1 km in length. When you travel from Sibu to Mukah, by boat, you need to travel from Sibu by the Igan River, to Sg. Kut which cuts across nipah forests to  the Oya River. Speed boats or express boats from Sibu can reach Dalat along the Oya River in 2 hours. but if the tide is very low, the speed boat may have to travel at a lower speed. In the olden days, Chinese motor launches had to wait at the Kampong Sg. Kut Muara for the tide to go up. That would take at least 2 hours.

The photo shows one side of the Kut Canal, the only man made canal in Sarawak. It was said that a shallow path was already made between Oya and Igan River during the time of Pengiran Metali when Mukah was under Brunei Rule. Later, de Crespigny (Resident of Mukah and later Sibu) and Gordon White (District Officer of Oya)  deepened and widened the canal. That should be before 1882 and Claude de Crespigny was made first Resident of the Baram.

The photo shows that every shop has a pontoon or jetty. This is for easy landing, upon arrival of the speed boat (or motor launch in the past), and it is also for goods to be placed on the pontoon for boats to pick them up. The difference between high and low tide is quite big.

It must have been quite a job to put up the wooden or belian reinforced wall to protect soil erosion ont the banks of the canal.