High impact projects to address water woes — Ministry of Utilities
KUCHING: The Sarawak government is aggressively implementing water supply projects to improve the existing services as well as increase the coverage to the rural areas of Sarawak, including Gedong and Mentong Merau-Mongkos in Serian Division.
In a press statement yesterday, the Ministry of Utilities (MOU) said these are high impact projects to address the water woes in those areas.
“For Gedong District, the Sarawak Rural Water Supply Department (JBALB), an agency under the MOU Sarawak, has implemented the (upgrading) project ‘Naiktaraf Bekalan Air’ at Lubok Punggor, Lubok Buntin and Tanjung Sap, to upgrade the water supply in these areas.
“The scope of the project involves the laying of 39.5 km of pipelines, the construction of a booster pump station and a high-level tank of one million-litre capacity. This project, which is fully funded by the Sarawak government, was just completed in October 2021, including all the flushing, disinfection, testing and commissioning,” it said.
The upgraded water supply system is now ready for water supply connections, it added.
Currently, applications for water supply connections by the local people are in progress.
This project will benefit 323 households in Gedong, by providing them with better and consistent water supply.
In the case of the water supply project in Mentong MerauMongkos area, it is fully funded by the federal government through the Ministry of Rural Development (KPLB), with JBALB Sarawak as the implementing agency.
This project involves the laying of approximately 165km pipelines from Serian to Mongkos area, a one millionlitre capacity high-level tank along Jalan Sanggai-Mentong, a 2.5 million-litre capacity highlevel tank along Jalan TebakangMongkos and booster pump stations along Jalan MentongMongkos, MOU pointed out.
“It will benefit a total of 45 villages with about 5,000 households. The first phase of this project was completed in September 2021 and is ready for household connections.”
Currently, the process of installing water meters is still being carried out by JBALB upon receiving the applications for water supply connections from the house owners and this phase 1 will benefit 14 villages in Merau-Mongkos area, MOU said.
As for the second phase of the project, the process of testing and commissioning for mechanical and electrical works, as well as flushing and disinfection of the pipelines is currently in progress, MOU said, adding this second phase will benefit 31 villages.
Out of these, eight villages with about 2,900 households will be able to apply for water supply connections by the end of 2021, it added.
The remaining 23 villages still need sub mains and communication pipes to be laid before household connections can be carried out.
These works are currently being carried out separately under another project under the Projek Rakyat (People’s Project) programme.
The project has commenced in September this year and the 23 villages will be connected with water supply progressively in tandem with the work progress of the project, which is expected to be completed by the middle of next year.
Its minister Dato Sri Dr Stephen Rundi Utom was quoted as saying that MOU together with the implementing agencies are collaborating and working together to enhance the constancy and the coverage of water supply so as to cater for the ever-increasing demand of the populace state-wide.