Proposal made to expand capacity of Slabi water treatment plants in Serian to another 50 million litres daily
KUCHING: A proposal has been submitted to the federal government for the capacity expansion of the capacity of Slabi water treatment plants ( WTPs) in Serian to another 50 million litres daily ( MLD).
According to Rural Water Supply Department ( JBALB), the population in Serian town and nearby areas is actually receiving water supply from two plants — one with the design capacity of 50MLD and another, 10MLD.
“Each WTP has its own raw water intake. On normal days, a combined production of 52MLD is sufficient to cater for the existing consumers in Serian town and nearby areas. However during drought, the level of the reservoir supplying raw water to Simunjan WTP would drop too low for the Simunjan WTP to operate.
“Whenever this situation occurs, the Serian WTPs are required to produce a total of 57MLD to cater for Simunjan’s treated water demand, in addition to its normal demand,” the department said in a statement.
In this respect, it disclosed that the state government had submitted the proposal to expand the plant in Slabi to the federal government to be considered for implementation under the 11th Malaysian Plan (11MP).
It stressed that the expansion was necessary towards ensuring sufficient water supply for existing consumers in Serian and at the same time, extending the supply of treated water to more rural population within Serian Division.
“In the meantime, the state government is also looking into refurbishing the existing plant at Serian to boost the production capacity, while awaiting the green light to proceed with the proposed 50MLD expansion,” said JBALB.
On low water pressure experienced by residents of Kampung Pichin and Kampung Krusen, the department explained that there was a dry spell during Gawai Dayak celebration in June, resulting in low water level at the raw water intake for the 10MLD WTP.
It said this, combined with the siltation problem at the same raw water intake, had rendered the raw water pump unable to deliver sufficient raw water to the 10MLD plant.
“Consequently, output from the plant was less than 10MLD. This resulted in several areas such as Kampung Pichin and Kampung Krusen experiencing low water pressure and insufficient water (supply). However after clearing the siltation and with the improvement of the weather, the 10MLD plant is now performing as intended. Immediate improvement works on the raw water pump mains have also been carried out to increase the raw water pumping rate during low water level scenarios.”
On the intermittent water supply at Kampung Taee, JBALB explained that this was due to pipeline dislocations at several sites along the distribution pipelines to that village, occurring at different days.
“We conducted repair works on these dislocations as soon as they were identified.
“However, as there were several dislocations and the duration over several days, it took some time for the water supply to return to normal.
“These frequent dislocations are believed to be caused by earth movement as some stretches of the pipelines are located too near to the edge of earth drains.
“These dislocations will also affect supply to other areas served by the Serian WTPs such as Kampung Pichin and Kampung Krusen.
“We are currently looking into the best remedial option to address this issue,” it said.
JBALB also revealed that other projects approved by the government for Serian Division included the rural water supply for Mentong Merau / Mongkos; feasibility study for the proposed development of raw water source for Samarahan (including Serian Division); balancing tank at Panchor Dayak, Serian; and integrated water supply master plan study for Samarahan (including Serian) Division.
“We are also looking into pipeline renewal programme for Serian Division.”
On another matter, the department also said Public Utilities Minister Datuk Dr Stephen Rundi Utom recently visited the Slabi plants, where he was briefed on the current status and future planning for Serian regional water supply.
The minister was accompanied by Assistant Minister for Public Utilities ( Water Supply) Datuk Roland Sagah Wee Inn, Kedup assemblyman Martin Ben, Bukit Semuja assemblyman John Ilus and Serian Resident Dahim Nadot.