Awang Tengah: Water supply in Kuching has returned to normal KUCHING: City folk have no reason to worry over water shortage, at least for now, thanks to the rain falling within the water catchment areas in the past few days. Minister of Public Utilities Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hassan told reporters during his visit to Kuching Water Board (KWB)’s water treatment plant in Batu Kitang near here yesterday that the water supply in Kuching had returned to normal. Among those accompanying him during the visit were Assistant Minister of Public Utilities (Water Supply) Datuk Sylvester Entri and Assistant Minister of Resource Planning Datuk Mohd Naroden Majais. “The water supply in Kuching has returned to normal due to the rain these past few days. However, KWB is monitoring the situation very closely as the dry and hot weather is still here,” he said. He added that the situation was so far manageable and this was due to the board’s initiative in increasing the flap by 0.5 metre in April this year. “This has increased the raw water storage to 3,000 mega litres and has actually prevented the shortfall in the water supply in Kuching.” Awang Tengah, who is also Minister of Public Utilities, asserted that KWB was also exploring the possibility of having ‘on’ and ‘off’ river bank storage to increase the raw water storage capacity. “This is meant to counter the recurrence of prolonged drought,” he said. He also disclosed that the on-going upgrading and rehabilitation of Batu Kitang Treatment Plant No. 3 from 200MLD to 400MLD would cater for the demand in Kuching city as well as the greater Kuching area (Kuching rural and Samarahan division). He said presently KWB was supplying 450MLD to about 785,000 people from 147,000 households. “Once the upgrading and rehabilitation work is completed in 2017, and the completion of the Bengoh dam we will be able to supply water not only for Kuching but also for areas such as Asajaya, Sadong Jaya and even Simunjan. “That is why we are trying our best to make sure that Bengoh dam can be commissioned as soon as possible,” he said. He said the project was behind scheduled which he blamed on the opposition for instigating the people to protest the development in the first place. On the areas supplied by Public Works Department (JKR), Awang Tengah said the government was aware of the situation and efforts were being made to improve the situation. Awang Tengah, who is also Second Minister for Resource Planning and Environment will be visiting the water treatment plant in Asajaya and also another one in Simunjan today (Aug 6). BP 6/8/14
Posted on: Wed, 06 Aug 2014 04:05:00 +0000
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