KOTA KINABALU: It’s unfair to take legal action against consumers during the current prolonged water supply crisis, says Parti Warisan vice-president Datuk Junz Wong.
His party, he said, strongly opposed any punitive action against consumers for what he called the failure of the Sabah Water Department to provide proper water supply to the people in many areas.
“The poor water supply over the last two years has only burdened the people. They should not be penalised,” he said in a statement yesterday.
Wong added that frequent water cuts had forced many homeowners and condominium residents to purchase water from private tankers.
“Who will reimburse these unfair additional expenses borne by ordinary Sabahans all over Sabah?” he said.
The Tanjung Aru assemblyman repeated his call made at last month’s state assembly meeting to the Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) administration to consider providing a special allocation to the Water Department to compensate affected consumers.
He said that, without a commitment to allocating funds for compensation, the department’s decision to sue its consumers for unpaid bills was unjustifiable.
“If the GRS government is not prepared to step in, then suing Sabahans is not the right course of action,” he added.
Touching on claims by the public that the meters had continued to run even without water supply, Wong said it was unjust to expect payment when “Sabahans are essentially receiving air, not water.”
The ongoing water crisis has affected consumers and business operators.
“It’s entirely reasonable for consumers to consider legal action (against the state government) under these circumstances,” he said.
Severe water supply shortfalls have led to dry taps and low water pressure across many areas in Sabah, particularly here.
Recently, Deputy Chief Minister III Datuk Shahelmey Yahya asked consumers to pay up some RM262mil owed to the department.
Shahelmey, who is the state Works Minister, also said the current demand of about 1,600 million litres per day (MLD) far exceeded the department’s capacity of 1,400MLD.
