Regular checks on leakage and dry taps in Penampang
Published on: Thursday, May 18, 2023
By: Sidney Skinner
The MC hired five private tankers to deliver treated water to the apartments.
THE Water Department will try to make regular checks of its assets in two separate parts of Penampang to mitigate any irregularities, including leaks and dry taps, in these areas.This follows separate feedback about the water wastage on Jalan Shantung Baru and the erratic supply at a residential property, off Jalan Minintod Bantayan.
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A motorist has noticed a clear fluid creating a pond on the verge and part of the former road while driving back to his apartment at Taman Penampang for “over a month”.
A Department technician checks to see if a supply is reaching the bulk-meter for Country Heights.
Some quarters had become incensed at the Department’s failure to plug the leak, after so long, that they had put up a home-made banner decrying the “berjuta litre air (millions of litres of water)” which had gone to waste.
A unit-owner at Country Heights Apartments, on the other hand, bemoaned the loss of his supply for more than two days recently.
Both individuals furnished Hotline with the pertinent information about their problems, which was forwarded to the agency.
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A Department spokesman said it was in the midst of attending to a damaged distribution mains beneath the verge on Jalan Shantung Baru.
“The land on the road shoulder, where the water has been pooling, was cleared last week,” he said.
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He said one of the agency’s contractors had been attempting to triangulate the precise location of the burst but this work had been complicated because of the uneven terrain in the area.
A banner can be seen at one part of the road protesting the lengthy repairs.
“The 300 millimetre pipe suddenly began leaking last month. We suspect that the asbestos-cement material from which the pipe is made may have become ‘uzur (worn down)’ over the years since the distribution line was first put in place.”
The spokesman regretted the delay it had experienced in completing the repairs but admitted that this was unavoidable.
“We wanted to jump-in and deal with burst as quickly as we could but we had to hold off from doing this as there was an underground electricity cable within proximity of the damaged pipe.
“We did not want our technicians to wind up being electrocuted while carrying out the repairs.”
He said the Department had to wait for the power line to be shifted away before it could begin dealing with the leak.
“The cable could only be moved once the competent contractor, recommended by Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd, became available.”
In light of this experience, the agency’s staff had been asked to be mindful about the condition of its distribution mains around the district, according to him.
“We hope that this will go some way to ensuring that the public is not unduly inconvenienced by future bursts.”
He said its technicians had likewise been reminded not to grow lax about monitoring the amount of water at its reservoir overlooking Donggongon as the falling levels at this installation recently gave rise to the water woes at Country Heights.
The spokesman said the input to its R6B reservoir had been inconsistent due to the escalating demand for tap water around Kota Kinabalu.
“The output from our Moyog and Kasigui Treatment Plants can barely keep up with the needs of our growing consumer-base in the State Capital.”
He said about 185 million litres of water daily (MLD) was produced at
the former with 53 MLD generated by the latter.
The land on the verge where the underground pipe burst on Jalan Shan Tung has been cleared by the Department.
“The diminishing volume at the Donggongon reservoir was only a temporary setback which happened between Friday and Saturday.
“We managed to raise the levels somewhat by Sunday to stabilise the water situation at the Apartments.”
He said the Department’s personnel, subsequently, cleared any airlocks in the distribution mains leading to the property.
“Our staff confirmed that water was reaching the bulk-meter for Country Heights, at the time, and that the pressure of the supply was strong.”
A spokesman for the company, which manages the Apartments, said the property lost its incoming supply for more than 24 hours straight between Friday and Saturday.
“At the time, there was not enough water in our ground tanks for us to give our tenants a supply at night,” he said.
“We couldn’t even do this on Sunday morning.”
He said the MC staff kept checking the gauge at the top of the tanks for the property, on and off, during this period only to find that there was ‘zero’ input to these receptacles.
Owing to this, the firm decided to engage tanker-operators to make five trips to fill up the tanks for the property.
“We only managed to release water to our tenants after some of these tankers had come to the property.”
The spokesman said the incoming supply had since been restored and acknowledged that the water situation had improved.
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