KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah Ministry of Public Works needs to urgently embark on repairs to broken and replacement of aging pipes all over Sabah because the NRW (non-revenue water) rate in Sabah is close to 60%.
In a statement made today, Datuk Edward Dagul, Deputy President of SAPP said that more than half of the treated water produced by the Water Department goes to waste. As a direct consequence, it does not matter how much more water is treated and produced because a big chunk of that water is lost during the distribution stage instead of reaching consumers.
“ This is simple common sense that we don’t need water engineers to figure out. What the water engineers need to do is to complete the task of preparing the contract work for the repairs and replacement of pipes, said Edward.
“From information reliably made available to me, at least RM300 million is needed to repair and replace pipes for the next two years. These contract work, when allocated to many small and middle size water contractors, will also help spur the local economy. There is no immediate need for the mega dam that supposedly will cost more than RM3 billion.
Edward further urged the Water department to seriously look into the proposed Upper Padas Hydropower Dam as an alternative to the Papar dam, which can be adapted to supply water all along the Southern Sabah and to Kota Kinabalu and to Labuan, as well as having the effect of alleviating the flooding problems to the Beaufort area. The source of water at Upper Padas has been on the drawing board for a few years.
“By reducing the NRW to, say 20%, which is the norm in a big, sparsely populated state like Sabah, we can save hundreds of millions of ringgit just by focusing on cutting down NRW, Edward concluded.-pr/BNN
