KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Water department has proposed to have prepaid water tanks as part of the solution to address water disruption at the Sepanggar area here.
Recently, Sabah Public Works minister Datuk Shahelmey Yahya has attributed rampant water theft at the Sepanggar area as one of the causes of water woes. Sepanggar member of parliament Datuk Mustapha Sakmud said that there is a special committee under Kota Kinabalu City Hall (DBKK) which meets periodically to address the squatter areas and water theft in his constitution. “There are several solutions introduced by the Sabah Water department whereby there is a water source for them, and they pay for it. “We are not encouraging squatter areas but providing tanks is better than they poke holes (into the piping system) and affect other consumers,” he said, adding such a way is a temporary solution before the people are moved to permanent residential areas. Mustapha, who is also deputy Higher Education minister, was speaking to the media after attending a briefing about RM3 million tube well projects at Universiti Malaysia Sabah here. He also said that a study by DBKK found that 70 per cent of the people at the squatter area are citizens. “As we are addressing water and squatter areas, we also need to look into the humanitarian aspect. They also need water and have family members.” Earlier during the briefing, UMS Development and Maintenance director Mohd Ari Nazrul Abdul Rahman said that there are about 12,000 houses in the squatter area in Sepanggar. “On average, each house would use 1,500 litres per day which is equivalent to 18 million litres per day (MLD). It is a significant number and will affect the supply.” In recent years, Sabah Water department has recorded above 50 percent of non-revenue water. The latest outstanding bill is reported to be RM262 million. Present was UMS vice-chancellor Prof Datuk Dr Kasim Mansor.
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