KOTA KINABALU: The water supply disruption that hit Kota Kinabalu International Airport (KKIA) has now become a police case.
Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Shahelmey Yahya, who is also state Works Minister, told the state assembly here on Wednesday (May 24) that they had lodged a police report over the matter.
"We want to find out if there were technical elements or others out of our control that caused the incident," he said, in his winding up speech on the motion of thanks on the state government policy speech by the Sabah Governor.
"We are still waiting for the (outcome of) police probe. At the moment, the water supply at KKIA is sufficient," he said, in response to a query by Sarifuddin Hata (Warisan-Merotai).
Shahelmey had previously said the state government was investigating why water supply to KKIA completely stopped during a scheduled maintenance of a water reservoir tank on May 12.
Water supply was restored at 2pm the same day but Shahelmey said they wanted to know the reason why there was completely no water supply for a few hours.
Meanwhile, Shahelmey said his ministry had noted public concerns over water supply which has become a hot topic in the press and social media.
He said the lack of water in areas like the state capital, Tawau, Lahad Datu and Sandakan has forced his ministry to review their plans to ensure more effective measures are taken to address the issue.
Among the steps to be taken, he said, was to increase production capacity, adding that 20 projects to build, upgrade and repair water production systems at a cost of RM12bil have been planned.
He said 13 projects to upgrade the distribution system and water pump replacements have also been earmarked, adding a further 18 projects were planned for the improvement of treated water coverage in rural areas.
Earlier, to a question on the state Works Ministry's plan to eradicate leakage and corruption in water supply services, Shahelmey said the Sabah Water Department would carry out an internal audit, he said in reply to a question from Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal (Warisan-Senallang).
To a question from nominated assemblyman Datuk Raime Unggi if the state was considering privatising the state's water service, he said it was among the solutions being considered by the government.
On the power issue, Shahelmey said the Ministry together with utility company Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd (SESB) acknowledged the existing issues, particularly the state-wide disruption recently.
As an interim measure, he said the SESB had installed 11 mobile generator sets at strategic locations to stabilise the power grid.
He added that for the long term, several projects to increase and meet the power supply demand have been approved such as a 125MW power generation set that will be commissioned in the second quarter of next year.
Besides that, a 100MW cycle gas power generation set is expected to be operational by 2026 in Kimanis while the hydroelectric power station in Upper Padas will be commissioned at the end of 2027, supplying 170MW of power. - Star
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