KOTA KINABALU: Sabah might consider adopting a new, innovative system that sees seawater treated and turned into drinking water and for other industrial use, says Datuk Shahelmey Yahya.
The Sabah Deputy Chief Minister III who is also State Works Minister said this new initiative, introduced by the state-owned subsidiary Jetama Sdn Bhd, is worth considering and exploring.
“We see this as a huge success for a government-linked company and I hope this system can be adopted for Sabah in the nearest future to meet the water supply demands for industrial use in the state,” he said.
Shahelmey was quoted by Jetama in a statement as saying this after witnessing a demonstration of how the system works at the 42nd Conference of the Asean Federation of Engineering Organisations (CAFEO 42) here, on Tuesday (Oct 22).
In explaining how the system works, Jetama chief executive officer Datuk Ahmad Naim Uddang said the process is where sea water is filtered, treated and turned into usable water.
“The reverse osmosis system allows seawater to be used as an industrial water supply as well,” he said, adding once the treated seawater goes through a nano and ultra violet treatment process, it can then be used for drinking.
.With this system in place, the treated sea water can in turn be distributed for local consumption and solve the water shortage problem faced often for domestic use, he said.
Ahmad said the system is designed in a mobile modular manner where installation is faster and much easier, allowing for more efficient distribution of water supply to Sabah’s growing industrial parks.
If done correctly, the installation would only take between five to six months, and can be run by solar and battery power for areas that do not get consistent electric supply from the grid, he said.
