Pulau Gaya voters want clean water
KOTA KINABALU: More than 12,000 villagers in Pulau Gaya here are deprived of clean water supply, and the village’s ‘well’ is their sole source of free water since the last three years.
The villagers, some of them are government school teachers, said the water level of the well had dropped in the current dry spell.
They also harvest rainwater but it is not enough as some villagers have a big family.
Villagers said the former assemblyman had promised to end the water misery but did nothing after elected.
They are worried the well is shared with wild animals and the water is contaminated.
The villagers said they have highlighted the water woes to the government and the assemblyman but the issue remained unattended.
Parti Warisan Sabah Tanjung Aru candidate Junz Wong, who visited the the island, said if the mandate is given and the party is governing Sabah, the water misery of the villagers would be resolved in 100 days.
“I will make sure all houses are connected with clean water supply. We will do our level best to improve access to safe water, hygiene and sanitation in this community. The healththreatening effects of unsafe water and poor sanitation have gotten worse as the issue remains unresolved,” he said.
During his visit to Tanjung Aru, Junz said Warisan will boost public facilities and amenities in the area and create economic cluster for the people if it wins in the coming 14th General Election (GE14).
“Throughout my four-day campaign, visiting several places including those squatting the sea areas, I’m compelled to make public that the situation there is sad as the houses are still connected by wooden bridges which is quite dangerous to children and senior citizens,” he said in a statement yesterday.
Junz said he has plans to help the villagers (squatting sea area) whose houses connected with wooden bridges be replaced with concrete bridges.
“Four of the 14 of our operation centres I visited, I am beginning to understand the desire of the locals here that they want to see a change in the government administration,” he said.
Wong added he wanted to use his close rapport with the people there to elevate their living standards through the establishment of economic cluster, whereby people could see more economic activities taking place with involvement of locals.
He said the government had been imposing the hotly-debated Goods and Services Tax (GST) that resulted in extra financial burden to the people.
“This is the issue we must address as the people, especially the low-income earners are suffering as they were finding it hard to make ends meet”.
Junz has called on the traditional and new voters turn out on polling day on May 9 and vote for Warisan.
“Being a Sabah-based party, Warisan vows to see the positive change in the Sabah economic landscape with people’s rights fully safeguarded, and importantly the state’s economic cake is shared equally to the people across the state,” he said.