KUALA LUMPUR – State Works Minister Datuk Shahelmey Yahya has denied that Sabah is experiencing a water crisis, calling Kota Belud MP Isnaraissah Munirah’s description of the situation “extreme”.
“What we are facing at the moment is a water shortage due to climate change and delays in the implementation of certain projects. Besides that, our non-revenue water (NRW) rate is high, with the state at around 50% and Kota Kinabalu at about 38%.
“So, if we can reduce the NRW rate to less than 35% and implement projects like the Papar dam, the state will have a stable water supply for the next two or three decades,” he told reporters yesterday during a visit to the Limbahau water treatment plant in Papar.
However, Shahelmey said that another area that they should consider in terms of planning is the impact of climate change and economic activity in the area.
For example, he said that opening up lots of land for plantations and such will change the nature of water catchments, potentially for the worse, and that these are the factors that must be considered when planning the state’s water resources.
In the same vein, he said the state government will implement, among others, vendor schemes in identified areas here to tackle the issue of illegal water connections and to reduce the state’s NRW rate.
Shahelmey said this when asked to comment on Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof’s recent announcement of an additional RM100 million loan to Sabah to address its water issues, in which Fadillah had highlighted the state’s high NRW level.
He said the state government is putting in effort to reduce Sabah’s NRW rate, which is caused by old and broken pipes as well as illegal water connections.
He said water theft remains one of their biggest problems, and the state Water Department had carried out a major cut-off of illegal connections in Sepanggar two months ago.
He said that following the operation, they noticed an increase in water pressure in the area, but he raised his concern that, despite the initiative, such activities will occur again in the future.
“To reduce such cases relating to the NRW rate, the state Water Department will use the total RM300 million loan from the federal government to carry out, among other things, vendor schemes by implementing bulk water meters and placing static tanks in identified squatter areas here. So far, this has already been done in Kg Brunei, Sepanggar, and we have identified three more locations for this effort.
“If we successfully implement these vendor schemes, the leakage of eight to 10 million litres per day can be returned to the system and enjoyed by the state’s consumers,” he said. – March 8, 2024