20,000 left in the dark in Sabah, says minister

Sabah Rural Development Minister Ewon Benedick vows to address problem with help of SESB and federal rural development ministry.

Ewon Benedick. (Facebok pic)

KOTA KINABALU: Almost 20,000 registered households from 603 villages in Sabah are reportedly still without electricity supply despite the government’s efforts to provide them with the basic infrastructure.

Speaking to FMT, Rural Development Minister Ewon Benedick said he was told by Suadi Wahab, Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd (SESB) chief engineer for rural electricity supply (BELB) projects, that one of the main problems was the low performance of contractors and incompetent project consultants.

He said SESB also faced challenges in preparing documents to take over land for the construction of main distribution substations.

“This is made worse by the delay in obtaining way leave for the proposed electricity poles. Some of the existing ones had to be moved because of road upgrading works by the Public Works Department (PWD),” he said.

Nevertheless, he added, Sabah had about 95% penetration overall in terms of electricity supply, with RM1.64 billion allocated by the federal rural development ministry to further develop BELB projects in the state.

The districts of Lahad Datu and Tenom have reported full electricity supply in all registered villages.

However, other districts such as Sook, Paitan, Sandakan and Tawau still suffer from a lack of continuous electricity supply in their rural areas.

“Among the problems faced by SESB in these districts is the distance between houses in the villages. Some of the villages only have two or three houses, which is normal in the rural areas of Sabah.

“For now, SESB will give priority to villages that have more than 10 houses,” Benedick said.

He said this year, only 706 houses were listed under the ongoing BELB project, but the appointed consultant had already identified 3,800 houses which could benefit from the project next year.

The projects under the federal rural development ministry which have benefited Sabahans include diesel generation projects, solar hybrid projects and village streetlights projects.

Between 2010 and 2017, a total of 29,260 households from 699 villages in the state benefited from the BELB project.

“The BELB Solar Hybrid project operating in Sabah has supplied 6,870 houses with electricity in Pensiangan, Sipitang, Sandakan, Kudat, Tawau, Kinabatangan, Lahad Datu and Semporna.

“The project is still ongoing with the focus on villages, including remote islands in Sabah,” Benedick said.

He added that his ministry would work closely with the federal rural development ministry to ensure that all homes in Sabah enjoy uninterrupted power supply.

“The new state government is determined to provide people in every village throughout the state with this basic facility despite the challenges we are facing.

“This is one of the government’s long-term plans through SESB to serve the people, especially those in rural and remote villages,” he said. -FMT