KOTA KINABALU: A better backup plan is being drawn up to ensure the water supply problem in Sabah does not make life difficult for the people in the state, the State Legislative Assembly was told today.
Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Seri Bung Moktar Radin(pix) said that among the main causes of water supply problems in the state was due to the pumps in the water treatment plants being damaged by the high amount of rubbish and sand trapped in them whenever there were floods and heavy rain.
As such, he has directed the Sabah Water Department (JANS) to implement a more effective backup plan to address the situation as well as other problems, including providing backup pumps.
“These pumps are sensitive and easily damaged. Unlike the pumps for lorries or cars, we must order them from overseas and that will take six months (to complete the order) and another month to process their shipment to Sabah.
“So, we have asked JANS to make early bookings, prepare the backup pumps in case the main pumps break down... ensure the best plan so that the people will get clean water supply although we face financial constraints and so on,” said Bung Moktar, who is also the Sabah Works Minister, today.
He said this when replying to a supplementary question by Calvin Chong (DAP-Elopura), who wanted to know about the water supply situation in the Sandakan district and Sabah, which faces the problem of low water pressure as well as water disruptions.
In his reply to the original question from Hamid Awang (BN-Balung), who asked about the latest development regarding Phase Three of the Tawau Water Supply Project involving the design and construction of a new dam, Bung Moktar said it was 6.93 per cent completed as of Oct 31.
He said the project was delayed for 391 days due to several factors, including foreign specialist workers not being able to enter Sabah following stricter standard operating procedures to curb the spread of Covid-19, land acquisition problems and gazetting land acquisition.
“This project is expected to be completed in January 2024... once completed, this dam is expected to have a 30 million cubic meters of water that can last for about four months if there is a drought,” he said.-Bernama
