EnahSamad

When TunMustapha Marine Park was established on 16 May 2016, Lagatonisland were included in its extended Community Use Zone or CUZ (colored orange in map 1). In the CUZ, community are free to practice their way of life be it traditional -artisanal fishing or modern -maricultureor ecotourism, as long it is done in a sustainable manner. On map or in theory, there is a very clear demarcation between the CUZ, Conservation Zone (marked green in map 1), Multiple Uses Zone (colored light blue) and Commercial Fishing Zone (colored dark blue). However, in practice or at sea, there is no physical fencing separating the zones. Administrative zoning exists when there is a perfect i.e. frequent, rapid and authoritative, enforcement by Sabah Parks. If it is not, then Sabah Parks can work together with the resource users-islanders. In this way, boundary for CUZ can be physically enforced effectively at the sea-. This boundary separates the insiders from the outsiders or between whose who has usufruct rights and those who does not have such rights.

Facilities

So far, the State have built one facility i.e. 100 meters long wooden jetty. The existing surau (house of prayer) was donated by NGO/philanthropist Haji Kahintongbin Tandok. Other facilities such as generator sets, solar panel, flush toilet that located at beach end of the jetty and community hall were privately funded by the second author (born in Lagaton) using money from the sales of his sought-after art works. Lagatonis a home to few voters, but politicians i.e. State Assembly N.2 Bengkokaand ParlimentaryP.167 Kudatmust not forget about them.

Sanitation issues

Direct effluent and human waste discharge from the stilt houses is unhygienic. Most guests are not used to it and are very uncomfortable. So, the second author built flush toilet inland two weeks before we arrived to the island. Why don’t the islanders-built houses inland so that septic tank toilet can be installed? The answer is related to water supply. If it rains, islanders can harvest rain water for drinking and washing. But when no rain or during prolong drought, islanders draw water from a well located next to the surauslightly further away from the graveyards. The well is shallow indicating limited quantity of near surface ground water. If many people return home during holidays and it’s happened during drought, they would have to buy and bring fresh water from town. The problem is that when water drawn from well more than usual quantity, after sometimes, it would turn salty. As near ground water level drop, it would create a vacuum allowing sea water to sip in because the highest water mark is 20 meters away from the well. If the ten or more houses were built inland, their toilet would pollute the precious near surface ground water bodies. Daily high tide can absorb human waste that are discharged directly to the sea. As long as the islanders continue to consume variety of filter feeders-mollusks or shellfish (some absorb and tolerance to e-coli count), there will be a risk of cholera outbreak. When people are too poor to purchase or cannot go to town to buy portable or bottled water, say during COVID-19 lockdown, having clean well water is a matter of survival. 6