SANDAKAN: There is one thing people in Sandakan can predict with remarkable accuracy. It is not the weather, nor the price of groceries, but the official statement that follows every water disruption.
“Pipe maintenance works are currently underway.”
The phrase has become so familiar that many residents could probably finish the sentence before the announcement is even released.
Weeks become months, months become years, yet the story rarely changes. Only the location of the burst pipe, the date of the disruption and the estimated restoration time are different.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, Sandakan Member of Parliament Vivian Wong Shir Yee
(pic) questioned what many residents have been asking for years.
“If the town’s water infrastructure is indeed ageing and deteriorating, how long will ‘maintenance works’ continue to serve as the standard explanation every time taps run dry?” she said.
Meanwhile, new housing developments continue to receive approval. Residential areas continue to expand. The population continues to grow. Yet the question of a comprehensive long-term master plan for Sandakan’s water supply remains unanswered.
The construction of five new water storage tanks is undoubtedly a welcome step.
However, as Vivian pointed out, residents also deserve to know what comes next.
“Infrastructure planning should not merely address today’s crisis; it should ensure that tomorrow’s residents do not inherit the very same problem.
“Clean water is not a luxury. It is one of the most basic public services any community should expect.
“When that service repeatedly fails, it is only reasonable for the public to ask whether a genuine long-term solution is finally on the horizon or whether they should simply prepare themselves for yet another familiar announcement declaring that ‘maintenance works are currently underway’,” she added.
If there is one thing that has remained consistently reliable in Sandakan, it is perhaps not the water supply, but the explanation that accompanies its absence, she lamented.
