KUCHING: As water sources dry up in parts of Sarawak during the ongoing dry spell, the state Welfare Department will continue distributing bottled drinking water to affected communities.
State Women, Childhood and Community Wellbeing Development Minister Datuk Seri Fatimah Abdullah said rural communities relying on rainwater or gravity-fed systems were particularly affected by the prolonged dry spell.
“There are places using gravity feed systems where the water source has dried up.
“River levels and water intake points are also declining, which can affect the volume of water to be treated and supplied to homes,” she told reporters after launching a Women@Work event in Kota Samarahan yesterday.
Fatimah said the department was coordinating assistance with the Sarawak Rural Water Supply Department (JBALB), to distribute bottled water, while JBALB delivered water by tanker or lorry.
From January to Aug 26, the department distributed 450,584 boxes of drinking water to 49,523 families, benefiting 225,822 people across Sarawak.
On Aug 31 alone, 750 units of 1.5-litre bottles were distributed to 375 people from 94 families in two villages in Lundu and Lingga.
Fatimah urged affected communities to notify their respective district or divisional disaster management committees for assistance.
She said bottled water would be distributed according to household size and the duration of assistance.
“We hope and pray that the situation will improve,” she said, expressing hope that the cloud-seeding operation planned to begin today would bring rain to the state’s water catchment areas.
