Shahelmey: Water-linked woes acted on within two hours
Published on: Saturday, April 27, 2024
By: Ricardo Unto
Shahelmey also said besides the Segaliud Water Treatment Plant Capacity Enhancement project in Sandakan, as an alternative measure to ensure continuous water supply for the people, another project in progress is the Water Supply System Upgrading Project, including the Main Water Storage Tank in Sandakan.
Kota Kinabalu: The Public Works Ministry will spare no effort to address water-related issues in the State through short-term and long-term plans as well as emergency actions, said Deputy Chief Minister III, Datuk Shahelmey Yahya.
Shahelmey, who is also Public Works Minister, said when the Sabah Water Department (Jans) receives complaints through the Careline Incident Report, the superintending officer representative (SOR) will instruct contractors to carry out repair works.
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“These repair works include mobilisation and demobilisation of equipment, site clearing, leak detection, and traffic control,” he said in his Ministry’s winding-up speech at the State Legislative Assembly sitting.
“Actions should be carried out within two hours after receiving instructions from the SOR.
“The duration for repairing pipes of 600 millimetres and below is one day, and for pipes exceeding 600 millimetres, it is two days, subject to weather conditions, upon receiving complete and orderly complaint or report information.”
Regarding the issue raised by Sekong Assemblyman Alias Sani about the water supply disruption in the public market, he said the problem is caused by pipe leaks that occur after the Jans metre.
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“In such cases, the repair responsibility lies with the building owner, which is the Sandakan Municipal Council (MPS).
“The Ministry was informed that MPS is carrying out pipe repair works on the premises,” he said.
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Shahelmey also said besides the Segaliud Water Treatment Plant Capacity Enhancement project in Sandakan, as an alternative measure to ensure continuous water supply for the people, another project in progress is the Water Supply System Upgrading Project, including the Main Water Storage Tank in Sandakan.
“Meanwhile, another project in the procurement process is the project to Investigate the Existing Boreholes and Design to Construct New Raw Water Source for Hilltop and Sibuga Water Treatment Plant.”
On Tanjung Papat Assemblyman Datuk Frankie Poon’s question, he said the Water Supply System Upgrading Project, including the Sandakan Storage Tank, has been underway since July 2023 with a implementation period of 36 months until July 2026.
“There is a scope in the project contract which involves replacing old pipes with new polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipes of 200 millimetres in size.
The work scope will include replacing old pipes in the Mile 10 area along a 16km stretch.
“So far, the appointed contractor has completed 53 per cent of the new pipe replacement, and once completed, the affected areas will receive continuous water supply without disruptions,” he said.
Additionally, he said there is also a maintenance contract divided into the Sandakan, Kinabatangan and Beluran areas, namely the Maintenance Repair and Routine Maintenance of Water Pipeline with a total cost of RM38 million.
“This contract is currently in the implementation status and started on April 15 this year.”
To a question by Darau Assemblyman Azhar Matussin, Shahelmey said that the Kalansanan and Kampung Warisan areas are among the areas facing high Non-Revenue Water (NRW) loss rates due to illegal connections.
“According to Jans records, the number of registered accounts in both areas is 786, where both areas are located at the end of the water supply system.
“The water production in both areas is 3.5 million litres per day (MLD) while the water demand is 0.5 MLD.
“To address this issue, operations to cut illegal connections and issue fines have been taken against those who illegally connected,” he said.
On the issue raised by Moyog assemblyman Datuk Darell Leiking, he said that there are still two projects that have been approved in the previous Rolling Plan and will be implemented during the 12th Malaysia Plan.
“The projects are the Rural Water Supply Project (BALB) for Kampung Maang, Kampung Limbanak, Kampung Sugud, and surrounding areas, and the Rural Water Supply Project (BALB) for upper Kampung Moyog and surrounding areas in Penampang.”
He said that Jans submitted a priority list of proposed water supply development projects in Sabah to the Energy Transition and Water Transformation Ministry (Petra) and the Rural Development and Regional Development Ministry (KKDW) for approval consideration in the Fourth Rolling Plan (RP4) for 2025, on Jan 31 this year.
Meanwhile, Shahelmey also said that district boundary demarcation is not an issue in terms of water distribution, especially in distribution coverage areas.
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