Water woes: Short and long-term solution measures
Published on: Wednesday, May 24, 2023
By: Ricardo Unto
Shahelmey said the Water Department is aware of the water supply issue that is being faced, especially during the hot season that is expected to hit Sabah by the middle of this year.
Kota Kinabalu: The perennial water problem in the State is caused by the delay in the implementation of projects that have been planned and also applied for, said Deputy Chief Minister III Datuk Shahelmey Yahya.“For example, the Telibong 2 water plant Phase 2 should have been implemented earlier to meet last year's demand, but now we have entered 2023, and it still needs to be fully completed,” said Shahelmey, who is also Public Works Minister, at the State Legislative Assembly sitting, here, Tuesday.ADVERTISEMENT
“What disappointed me after being a Minister in this Ministry for about four months was that implementation of many of these projects need better management.
“I have discussed with some individuals with long experience in the Water Department and the Ministry, and we will find an approach to streamline and improve the delivery system.”
Shahelmey was responding to a supplementary question by Senallang Assemblyman Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal during question-and-answer session.
Earlier, to the original question by Shafie, Shahelmey said the Water Department is aware of the water supply issue that is being faced, especially during the hot season that is expected to hit Sabah by the middle of this year.ADVERTISEMENT
“Among the main issues facing the Water Department are leaking pipes, obsolete pipes, water theft, deteriorating quality of raw water resources and water demand that exceeds water production capacity.
“To overcome this problem, several short-term and long-term solution measures have been and are being implemented involving not only the city area and its surroundings but also the entire State,” he said.
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For leaking pipes, he said, the Department has and will offer pipe maintenance contracts according to zones throughout the State to replace olad and rusty pipes.
In addition, if there are complaints or reports of pipe leaks or broken pipes from consumers or members of the public, the Department will take immediate action within 24 hours.
“Water theft or illegal tapping is becoming more prevalent, increasing non-revenue water (NRW).
“To overcome this problem, the Department implements a Pre-Paid/Small Power Producer Water contract in areas or places identified as densely populated or zones with the potential for water theft.
“In addition, an integrated operation involving the authorities to monitor and deal with this problem is carried out so that the issue of water theft decreases and gives awareness to the general public.”
At the same time, he said, the Department will implement the recruitment of 2,011 daily part-time workers to improve the efficiency of water supply management and monitoring as well as support the efforts of the State and Federal Governments in achieving the national NRW rate target.
On raw water quality, the Sabah Public Works Ministry and the Sabah Water Department have established collaboration with other departments and agencies to preserve and protect catchment areas through the National Water Resources Council.
“The department receives a high demand for treated water supply to meet daily domestic and commercial or industrial needs.
“To ensure this request can be met, the Department is implementing three projects in the Kota Kinabalu and northern regions,” he said.
The projects implemented are the Capacity Increase Project from 80MLD to 160MLD Telibong 2 Phase 2, Tuaran, Urgent Water Supply Scheme Telibong 1 and Urgent Water Supply Scheme Telibong 2.
As for Tawau, among the projects currently being implemented is the Tawau Water Supply Scheme - Tawau Dam, which is now under construction.
For Lahad Datu, there is a project currently in the construction phase, which is the New Lahad Datu Water Treatment Plant Construction Project Phase 1 in the Segama area, Lahad Datu.
For Papar, there is a project that will start construction work, which is to increase the capacity from 40MLD to 80MLD of the Kogopon Water Treatment Plant (LRA) Phase 2, which is expected to start in July/August this year.
“The Sabah State Water Department had also drawn a more organised long-term plan.”
Among the projects that will be built and planned is the Kota Kinabalu Phase III Water Supply Feasibility and Concept Study, and the status of the project is currently at the concept study stage.
For Tawau, two new projects have been approved in Rolling Plan 3 through the Natural Resources, Environment and Climate Change Ministry (NRECC) and the Rural and Regional Development Ministry (KKDW), namely the Cinta Mata LRA Construction Project 2 and the Rural Water Supply Project (Balb) Balung Water Supply System and its surroundings.
For Sandakan, the Department will list the proposal to transfer the facility of the Segaliud Water Treatment Plant, Sandakan to Sungai Meliau or Sungai Kinabatangan as a potential new raw water source.
This proposal will also involve a detailed study and design to upgrade the existing water plant and construct a raw water pipeline system from the new raw water source to the Betotan Dam, Segaliud, Sandakan.
This proposal will be prioritised in the Fifth Rolling Plan (RP5) 12MP under the NRECC programme.
For long-term solutions for Beaufort, the Department has listed the proposed construction of an off-river storage in the district in Rolling Plan 4, 2024 12MP, under the NRECC programme.
This pool reservoir can accommodate the supply of raw water sources that will be processed into the water treatment plant without stopping the work or experiencing very high turbidity of the raw water source.
For Sipitang, the Department proposes the Sipitang District Water Supply System Phase I in the High Impact Project.
With this project, domestic and commercial water demand around Sipitang can be supplied with consistent and guaranteed treated water.
In addition, the Department has proposed the Lahad Datu Water Supply Phase II System under the Federal Soft Loan Fee.
Shahelmey said the department also plans to increase staff to meet the needs of existing and future tasks, especially when the completed water treatment plant is built.
“The department has also completed the organisational structure framework involving adding 500 staff,” he said.
The department has also prepared an operational and emergency monitoring action plan to deal with the possible effects of EL Nino, which is predicted to hit the country starting in the middle of this year.
On the salty water issue in Sandakan raised by Elopura Assemblyman Calvin Chong, Shahelmey said in February, he visited the site at the Segaliud Intake of the Bentotan Dam and the Segaliud Water Treatment Plant to inspect the problems.
“Following that, we have sent a team to handle the plant operation.
“What we have achieved from March until now is the damage at the river lock, and the river barrage has been repaired so we can control the saline intuition to the intake.
“Next, we increased the pumping of water from the river to the dam to increase the dam level, which at that time was quite low, which resulted in the chloride level being so high.
“With continuous pumping, the river lock has been repaired, and the level of chloride in the water has been tested by a certified laboratory, for these three days, the reading has been in the range of 280-286.”
He hoped it will continue to drop below the 250 level.
“For the long term, as I said earlier, we take lessons from what happened to avoid the risk of sailing intrusion happening again into our intake and our dam.
“That is why we propose to make a new intake next to Kinabatangan to transfer raw water to Bentotan Dam to get clean raw water to be treated in the future,” he said.
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