Formerly established by the Hakka Chinese in 1946, the pleasant town of Spaoh is a sub-district of the Betong Division (formerly known as Saribas Division) in Sarawak.
With a population around 17,000 people comprising mostly comprising of Iban, Malay and Chinese ethnic group, one of the main economic activities in Spaoh is farming.
Being part of the food basket area in Betong, the peaceful town of Spaoh will soon be seeing upgrades through major development projects by the Sarawak government, especially on the agriculture sector.
One of the major projects in Spaoh that announced is constructing a short take-off and land strip airport (STOLport) within five years in Bebuling.
To build the airport will cost the State government an estimated of RM108 million.
Adding that the Betong, Sri Aman and parts of Sarikei has a huge potential to be the State food basket region and a net food exporter by 2030, constructing the airport is a logistic necessity if Sarawak is to export fresh food and farm products to the global market.
To open new areas for agriculture and reach out to new markets, the road network within the area must also improve, therefore the importance of constructing the coastal trunk road and the Pan Borneo Highway.
Apart from that, the State government has also laid out several development projects for Spaoh.
This includes the Spaoh riverfront beautification project.
On completion, the riverfront which intended to be an attraction to visitors and local community will include a promenade, gazebo and playgroup.
Apart from that, visitors will also be able to get an up-close look at crocodiles in their natural habitat along the Paku River once the Spaoh riverfront project completed.
According to Deputy Premier, YB Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah, he believed that the crocodiles can be a potential crowd-puller.
He was quoted saying the unique attraction can also generate income to the local community, adding that the crocodiles have been sighted in the river which is also teeming with freshwater prawns.
Another feature that also planned to be part of Spaoh development project is the construction a new bridge, crossing the Paku River to the town.
This was announced that Spaoh will get a RM30 million bridge soon to replace its current single carriage bridge.
YB Datuk Amar Douglas also said that Spaoh being part of a major agriculture development area, (the Bukit Sadok Agropolitan area) needs to have a better and bigger bridge because with the airport built near the area, it is vital that Spaoh have good facilities to cope with the expected increase in traffic.
With that, there would be plans for more economic activities in the sub-district. The ministry was looking at commercial scale cultivation of durian, especially the Musang King variety, as well as rambutan, pineapple, banana and vegetables in Spaoh.
And in the effort to modernise the agriculture sector to local community, a fertigation garden for demonstration purposes (beginning with cultivating golden rock melon) introduced at SMK Spaoh.
As a brainchild of YB Datuk Amar Douglas, the fertigation garden is deliberately located at the school so students will get to know about it and can learn about modern farming.
With a cost of RM100, 000, it is hope the initiative can ignite interest among them as well as the local farmers. This is so that local farmers would feel encouraged to pick up modern ways of planting crops.
It was also aimed that more demonstration garden would be constructed state-wide as of this year.
Other projects (Projek Rakyat) which are expected to be completed or in progress this year includes a new sub-district office (RM5 million), sports complex (RM14 million), Spaoh agriculture centre (RM3.5 million) and new market (RM5 million).
With these upgrade projects lined up for Spaoh, the sub-district is set to become a progressive town that elevates the socio-economic status of the community but will also contribute to the agriculture economy of the State.
