KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Umno has accused Parti Warisan of being the architect of the state water crisis since 2019.
Its information chief, Datuk Suhaimi Nasir, said that in 2019, Warisan president Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal terminated the contracts of six water concessionaire companies that handled 58 water treatment plants statewide.
“With that decision, the state had to pay over RM315mil in compensation to these companies.
“The question is, was that a decision of a smart leader or a political move that choked the people themselves?” he asked.
Suhaimi also questioned why Shafie made such a rash decision without a clear backup plan in place, resulting in water issues that affected the people.
“Today, people are no longer asking ‘When will the roads be completed?’, but rather, ‘When will we have water?’.
“In Sandakan, Tawau, Lahad Datu and even the city of Kota Kinabalu, we see people queuing with pails and cans as if clean water was a luxury item,” he said.
Suhaimi, in turn, asked state Finance Minister Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun whether the state was still paying for Shafie’s blunder.
“If the termination was meant to help the state save money, then why are the people still having to store rainwater, stock up due to rationing and buy from water trucks every week?
“History will not remember Shafie as the saviour but as the main cause of Sabah’s water crisis,” he added.
Sabah’s water woes were in the spotlight after Covid-19, and the situation seemingly worsened in 2023.
