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SCHEDULED maintenance on a fixture at the Telibong II Water Treatment Plant inadvertently gave rise to the water woes in parts of Ujana Kingfisher, with homes in these areas losing their supply over the past three days.

An underground pipe-burst along Lorong 1E-1, on the other hand, was behind the wastage which occurred temporarily at one section of the KKIP (West) Housing Project. 

Water apparently pooled on the surface of the verge at one section of the road and overflowed into the drain nearby for more than a fortnight recently.

The consumers, who experienced or observed these irregularities, provided Hotline with the pertinent details. This information was forwarded to the Water Department.

A spokesman for the agency said activities at Phase 1 of the Plant temporarily ground to a halt on Monday to allow repairs to be made to a pump at the facility.

He said activities at the Plant were temporarily halted for 9 hours to accommodate this work which got underway from 8am.

“A notice was sent out over social media five days before the shutdown to alert consumers about the potential disruption which they might experience.”

Besides those in Ujana Kingfisher, the consumers at Malawa Ria Apartments, Taman Sepanggar, Universiti Apartment 1, Universiti Prime Kondo, Rimbunan Hijau Residence, Indah Permai, Unggun Jaya and Taman Cerah also felt the pinch.

The rural communities in Kg Gentisan, Kg Likas, Kg Unggun Jaya and Kg Lokub were not spared.

The government and commercial properties affected by the shutdown included the Fire and Rescue Services Department staff quarters, TLDM, Sulaman Sentral, Nexus Karambunai and Karambunai Villa.

Among the educational establishments which felt the impact from the replacement effort were Institut Kemahiran Mara, Universiti Teknologi Mara (Sabah), Institut Latihan Perindustrian and Universiti Malaysia Sabah.

When asked why consumers on Lorong Ujana 11 still had no tap water on Thursday, the spokesman said it took between two to three days for some consumers to recover properly from the disruption. 

This was especially so if their premises was located on higher ground or towards the end of the Department’s distribution-line, according to him.

“Nevertheless, our technicians will be sent to this part of Ujana Kingfisher to clear any airlocks which may have formed in the pipes leading to the individual meters here.

“Our staff will also be asked to check on the pressure the supply reaching the meters.”

Where the KKIP (West) Housing Project was concerned, the spokesman said repairs were made to a damaged 150millimetre HDPE [high density polyethylene] pipe buried beneath the verge last Saturday.

“Our technicians had to dig down to the affected section in order to attend to the affected section of the distribution line,” he said.

The consumer apparently contacted the Department’s Careline and wrote to the agency’s director about the leak. Hotline was provided with a copy of this letter dated June 19.

When asked why it took over two weeks for the agency’s contractor to deal with this matter, he declined to comment.

The spokesman said multiple bursts had taken place at the KKIP (West) Housing since the middle of last month.

A check of the Department’s records showed that its technicians attended to leaking 150mm HDPE pipes on July 8, July 6 and July 4, according to him. 

Two of these incidents took place on Lorong 1E-1, while the other occurred on Lorong 1E-3, according to him.

“Our personnel have been urged to step up their surveillance of the distribution-line servicing in this part of Sepanggar to mitigate these problems.”