TAWAU: The insufficient water supply in this district is expected to be solved when the construction dam at Jalan Gudang Empat, here is completed by 2026, said Deputy Chief Minister III Datuk Ir. Shahelmey Yahya.
The State Minister of Works said treated water supply would be sufficient for the long term, thus addressing the dwindling resources compared to the demand in this district.
This, he said, was also caused by various factors such as old and leaking pipes and water theft due to illegal pipe connections from the distribution system.
As a short-term solution, he said, the Sabah Water Department is implementing a programme cutting of illegal pipe connections to reduce the rate of unproductive water, replacing leaking pipes and distribute clean water via tankers.
“We have also included the procurement of new and additional tankers and improved the efficiency of work at the water treatment plant whose equipment is old and needs to be replaced,” he said.
Shahelmey said last year, the government appointed a panel of contractors to repair damaged pipes and equipment to deal with the immediately, ensuring only a short disruption of the water supply.
He said after the Tawau Road Safety Council (MKJR) Campaign in conjunction with the 2025 Chinese New Year celebrations at Jambatan Putih after a briefing on the Jalan Utara Baru upgrading project and visited the Water Dam project site at Gudang Empat, on Thursday evening.
Touching on the campaign, Shahelmy hoped that the community would increase the level of compliance with road regulations during the festive season and school holidays because traffic flow was expected to increase with the increase in vehicles on the road.
Regarding the 5.40-km Jalan Utara upgrading project, he said the progress of the project was still reasonable. The RM206 million project began in March 2023 and is expected to be completed within 36 months.
The ground-breaking for the water dam project was officiated by former Deputy Chief Minister, Tan Sri Joseph Pairin Kitingan who is also the State Infrastructure Development Minister in January 2018.
At that time, he announced that the Tawau Water Supply Scheme (SBAT) Phase III Project — Design and Construction of the Water Dam at Jalan Gudang Empat would be the first state-of-the-art multi-purpose dam in Sabah when completed by 2021.
The dam has a capacity of 30 million litres of water per day and is capable of storing 4.6 million cubic metres of water per day during the rainy season and can guarantee Tawau’s clean water supply for the next 30 to 40 years even without rain for six months.
The project was approved under the 10th Malaysia Plan (RMK10) with a value of RM240 million and was announced to be built on 679 acres since 2012.
Since then, Tawau leaders have often voiced their insistence that the project be started immediately, which has seen leaders take turns going to the field to review the progress of the project, in addition to the area’s assemblymen.
Among them were former Minister of Infrastructure Development (Warisan government), Datuk Peter Anthony, former Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Seri Bung Mokhtar Radin in 2022 who announced that the project was expected to be fully completed in two years, namely the end of 2024.
Meanwhile, Shahelmy in his visit in 2023 stated that the project was given in 2017 and the delay in progress occurred due to the Covid-19 pandemic, causing the arrival of skilled workers from China to be halted, however, the project is expected to be completed within three years.
