KUCHING, Nov 9: Many rural communities in Gedong and Serian are still deprived of treated water supply due to projects which have not been fully completed, some since 2012.
Parti Bumi Kenyalang (PBK) southern zone political affairs director Raymond Thong has urged the Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) government to come clean about this.
The Gedong water supply project, he said, was initiated on Oct 17, 2012 with completion scheduled for Jan 16, 2014, but til today, it is still not completed.
“Even though (water distribution) pipes have been laid along the roads, they are not connected to the houses.
“The untreated water is not safe for consumption due to the high chlorine content because the chlorination plant is not ready yet.
“The people of Gedong are being deprived of pipe water despite waiting for so long,” he said in a statement today.
Aside from Gedong, Thong added that the Mentong Merau-Mongkos water supply project project which started on Nov 14, 2017 and rescheduled for completion on Nov 28, 2020 from the initial planned completion deadline of Nov 12, 2019, is also seeing major delay.
“The GPS government had mentioned that the project would be fully completed in June 2021 and would start supplying water to consumers.
“Then the Federal Rural Development Minister Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid, accompanied by Minister of Education, Science and Technological Research Datuk Amar Michael Manyin (Jawong) and Minister of Utilities Dato Sri Stephen Rundi, went to Serian on Oct 24 to perform a symbolic officiating ceremony with the project expected to be completed by Nov 30 this year.
“How are the people going to get pipe water when the laying of pipes is not even completed yet?” he asked.
Thong thus demanded that the GPS government provide explanations and details for the long delays in these projects as he noted that the Public Works Department (JKR) is supposed to monitor and track the progress of government projects it are involved in.
“What have they been doing? Not only are the people deprived of needed amenities and utilities, it is wasting a lot of taxpayers’ money, This is unacceptable,” he stressed. — DayakDaily
