KUCHING, Sept 16: The Department of Rural Water Supply Sarawak (JBALB) today insists that water for residents living in the Bakun Dam area has not only improved but the water quality is in accordance with the National Drinking Water Quality Standard (NDWQS).
This was in response to an article in a local daily today claiming that the villagers had been yearning for treated water supply and electricity for years.
The Ministry of Utilities pointed out that JBALB took over the new Sungai Asap water treatment plant from the Public Works Department (JKR) in 2017, and the plant’s elevated tanks and pumping mains had successfully been commissioned on July 4 this year. In addition, the mitigation of communication pipes from old distribution pipelines to new pipelines for the 15 longhouses were completed on Sept 7.
“After practical completion of the new distribution system, the consumers have been receiving water pressure of minimum 2.2 bar.
“Overall, the water pressure to each longhouse ranges from 2.2 bar (22m) to 6.4 bar (64m), which far exceeded the requirement of 1.0 bar (10m) residual pressure for rural area criteria.
“In fact, water quality and pressure in Sungai Asap is high and even exceeds that of most urban areas,” said the ministry in a statement.
The ministry added that to further improve the water pressure and water quality from the internal consumer piping system that were mostly aging, rusted and leaking (galvanized iron pipe), JBALB Sarawak would be calling for tenders by the end of this month to replace the internal pipe system to roughly 1,800 households in Sungai Asap.
“Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg approved an allocation of RM14 million during a visit to Sungai Asap on July 5 this year.
“In this regard, the Ministry of Utilities and JBALB Sarawak would like to emphasise that we are committed to ensuring all planned projects will be fully implemented according to the specified terms,” it said. — DayakDaily
