35,000l water to be sent to Banggi daily

KOTA KINABALU: Some 35,000 litres of potable water will be shipped daily to the drought hit northern island of Banggi to address the critical situation there.

Kudat district officer Sapdin Ibrahim said it would be delivered to Pulau Banggi villagers using boats equipped with water tanks.

Sapdin said the move was necessary as the island’s treatment plant was shut down on Friday after the river there ran dry.

“This method is cheaper than using barges which would cost RM30,000 for a return trip,” he said.

Sapdin said a shipment of 3,000 cartons of bottled water, each containing 1.5 litres, had also been sent to the island to be distributed to the 10,000 villagers.

He said the villagers had been depending on a single spring at Kampung Timbang Dayang but water flow had dwindled to a trickle that it took more than an hour to fill up a 10-litre container.

Science, Technology and Inno­va­tion Minister Datuk Wilfred Madius Tangau said parts of the west coast interior district would see intermittent rain from now.

“The Meteorological Services Depart­ment has forecasted wet weather until April 14.

“For this reason, no cloud seeding operations will be conducted during this period,” he said.

A midday downpour provided a much-needed respite over parts of K­­ota Kinabalu and other areas along Sabah’s west coast for nearly an hour.