Balung residents clamour for dam to be built quickly
TAWAU: Bandar Sri Indah (BSI) residents at Mile 10, Apas Road, who have been experiencing water shortage for about 10 years, have called on the state government to build a dam in Tawau to address the supply of clean water in their area.
A memorandum on the proposal to urgently build a dam was presented to Balung assemblyman Datuk Osman Jamal after a meeting between representatives of BSI and Tawau Water Department yesterday.
Osman, when met outside the department, said four things were discussed, which were for the state government to take note of the water problem in Tawau, especially in Bandar Sri Indah and surrounding residences in Balung.
The other decision made, he said, was for the Balung Water Treatment Plant to supply water to BSI.
To date, he said, the water supply to Balung is only obtained from the North Water Treatment Plant and it is hoped that with these two plants channeling treated water to BSI, the situation will get better.
The meeting also discussed the residents' recommendation that water is channeled from the Cintamata Water Treatment Plant to help the North plant in order to allow water to be delivered to BSI.
Osman said, the residents also requested the state government to resume the Tawau Dam at Gudang Empat project which has been postponed due to several matters in order to manage the supply of raw water to the plants.
“Nowadays, if we have heavy rainfall the plants had to stop the processing of raw water, however during a drought, raw water in the river decreases. With the dam in place, water could then be supplied continuously to the plant as a when required,” he said.
At the moment, clean water to BSI is transported by lorries, and added that personally as the Balung assemblyman, he does not want any more new approvals for housing projects in that area until the water issue has been resolved.
Meanwhile, BSI Phase 1 Rukun Tetangga chairman, Yusri Yumasa, said, the water issue in BSI has been around for 10 years.
He said, the rapid development with very low water capacity has been explained by Tawau Water Department and a memorandum was submitted to Datuk Osman Jamal for him to bring to the Sabah Legislative Assembly to ask for a dam to be built in Tawau to meet the needs of the population there to be given urgent attention.
“Water is a basic necessity. Imagine ten days without water and the water delivered by lorries were simply not enough for the residents there,” he said.
Yusri said, there are 800 houses in BSI Phase 1, and estimated to rise to 2,000 houses in Phase 3 and 5. Hence, there should be a contingency plan to take into account dry weather forecasted for January. He said, developers and the water department should be ready and prepared to resolve the issue and not wait until there are complaints by residents.
A BSI resident, Gan Chee Chan, said, the residents have highlighted several issues from the discussions. Among them is the fact that the water crisis in BSI has been very critical not only ten years ago.
He said the residents have requested Tawau Water Department to take necessary steps so they can get water yesterday. They have promised to try and deliver and hope that the issue can be resolved as soon as possible so that there will be no more prolonged difficulties for the residents.