Rural Papar folk still left sitting in the dark
Published on: Friday, November 12, 2021
By: Sidney Skinner
.jpg "Rural Papar folk still left sitting in the dark")
A Papar resident uses his flashlight to check on the condition of the food in his fridge after it shut off by itself.
Three Papar consumers have spoken out about Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd’s (SESB) failure to improve the supply to Kg Suok-Dambai Nantazan, despite an assurance from the firm that the power woes in the village would be resolved months ago.The management announced, on April 30, that action would be taken to “meningkatkan dayaharap (increase the reliability)” of the electricity being channelled to the village.
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SESB Senior General Manager (Asset Management) Norhizami Abu Hasan said the firm intended to upgrade the voltage system in the area.
“We have identified a low voltage problem in the village and this issue should be dealt with, ‘selewat-lewatnya (at the latest)’, by May,” he said at the time.
Six months on, the rural folk in the village are still waiting for the company to make good on this promise.
A Papar resident was forced to cook by candle light due to the supply woes in the village.
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The trio, who were among these residents, said the supply irregularities, which they had been experiencing “for over a decade”, still persisted.
They were under the impression that insufficient electricity was being supplied to the village.
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These suspicions have arisen because the ceiling lights, and other electrical appliances, in their homes did not operate at their maximum setting throughout the night.
These facilities supposedly began flickering or vibrating the longer they were operational. Some of them even went off by themselves.
Each of the disgruntled residents had separately reported these goings-on to SESB on and off for years.
When asked about the reason for the hold-up, a SESB spokeswoman declined to comment.
“We have taken note of the grievances from our customers in Kg Suok-Dambai Nantazan,” she said on November 11.
“Our Papar branch is still in the process of trying to settle the electricity problems here.”
Norhizami confirmed earlier that a preliminary investigation had been made of this matter in April.
“On top of the local population growth, the supply woes are being aggravated by the remote location of the village,” he said.
“Kg Suok-Dambai Nantazan is quite far away from the town. There is also a substantial distance between the village and the nearest electricity transmission lines in this part of the district.”
LYNUS of Papar admitted to being embarrassed to having his friends over for dinner as the fluorescent lights in his house blinked on and off
“It is impossible to read, let alone watch TV – that is when the television does function properly,” he said.
The TV occasionally “blinked out” without anyone deactivating it, according to him.
“We have taken to sitting in the dark and streaming our favourite programmes over our handphones as the strobe-affect of the lights hurts our eyes.”
Lynus said, if he had to read at night, it was easier to do so with a torch or by candlelight.
“My parents moved to the village after they retired in 2018. Our life has been so stressful because of the unstable power supply.”
He said he had spoken to so many SESB staff over the years and sent numerous emails to the company.
“I even submitted a letter to the SESB office in the district this February.”
A candle illuminates this bathroom in Papar after the lights in the house went out.
Another resident, ADOM, said he constantly had to send his damaged appliances to the workshop.
He bemoaned the burden the power woes had caused him financially.
He said he had paid between RM120 to RM260 in repairs over the years, depending on whether he had to replace a coil in his refrigerator or the back light for his 29-inch Light Emitting Diode (LED) television set.
“I have given up using a computer, multimedia speakers and a karaoke amplifier at home as I can no longer afford to repair them if they break down,” he said.
“It is cheaper to just buy these devices brand new rather than have them repaired.”
Adom blamed the weak electricity supply being channelled to Kg Suok-Dambai Nantazan for the hassle he faced because of his appliances.
He said he and his mum had encountered this problem since they first shifted to the village in 2011.
“I have been contacting the firm’s staff, from time to time, since then about these goings-on. I most recently handed in a letter about these electricity woes at the Papar SESB office in January.”
As of November 11, he had yet to receive an official response to this correspondence.
Adom estimated that over 500 residents called the village home and felt it was unfair of the company to overlook the plight of these consumers.
ELAINE, who also lives in Kg Suok-Dambai Nantazan, also expressed her displeasure about the unstable supply to the village, saying that this had been going-on since 2010 when her house was first built.
“I personally delivered a letter about the power problems here to the SESB office in Papar at the end of January.”
The consumers separately provided Hotline with copies of their correspondence which were forwarded to the company.
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