KUCHING: The state government is committed to ensuring everyone, including those in rural areas, enjoy clean and safe water supply.
Utility and Telecommunication Minister Datuk Julaihi Narawi said the commitment involves strategising short-, medium- and long-term plans to upgrade the water supply system throughout Sarawak and at the same time solve the water shortage issue.
He said this after attending a briefing on the Grid Water Supply Project in Sarawak by the Rural Water Supply Department (JBALB) at its command centre here on Monday (Feb 7). The briefing was conducting by the department’s director Chang Kuet Shian.
Meanwhile, the JBALB said the upgrading of the water supply system could be done through the Sarawak Grid Water Supply Programme, People’s Project, Sarawak Alternative Water Supply Project (SAWAS), Water Supply Project under the 12th Malaysia Plan (12MP) and the JBLAB Sarawak Digitisation Programme.
“The Sarawak Grid Water Supply Programme involves a holistic long-term planning by the ministry aimed at upgrading the available water supply system in Sarawak.
“The treated Grid Water supply was planned to transverse Sarawak from the southern to the northern parts to link the water supply system all throughout the roads in order to construct a continuous grid to strengthen and to build trust in the state’s water supply,” the department said in a statement.
This will cover all the development of raw water supply to ensure supply is sufficient to meet the rising demand, it said.
“The planning involves a few phases for implementation of the short-term (until 2025), medium-term (until 2040) and long-term (until 2070) planning.
“Currently, 187 projects have been implemented with an estimated cost of RM625 million while 119 projects are still under the construction phase with an allocation worth RM2.87 billion,” JBALB said.
Besides that, 11 projects worth RM8.8 million are now in the tendering phase while another 11 projects worth RM366 million are still in the planning phase.
Under the 12th MP, there will be 160 projects statewide which will have a huge impact with an estimated cost of RM28 billion in the next five years, JBALB said.
JBALB is also embracing digital technology to provide improved and quality services to its consumers. In line with this, the JBALB command centre was set up to act as one-stop physical and virtual platforms for the digitalisation of water supply, including its corporate communication and customer services.
JBALB is expected to go fully digital by 2025.
