Sabah water crisis hits boiling point

A sign in Sandakan limiting the number of drinking water cartons allowed per customer due to the state’s salty water situation.

Ordinary people fed up at having to pay the price for years of mismanagement by state body

SABAHANS are quite laid-back in expressing their feelings when faced with adversity.

The ordinary man usually finds humorous ways to vent his frustrations.

Be it through jokes, cartoons, videos or songs, they are able to convey pressing issues in catchy ways.

One resident in Tamparuli, a sub-district, summed up his water woes in a song.

It went “Tamparuli selalu tiada karan, bangun pagi berus gigi tiada air, pergi dapur buka paip bunyi angin, pergi tangki air cukup cukup mandi.. dua tiga hari selalu begini.. mana tahan, kawan hampir, tiap hari, tiap malam selalu tiada air...”

In translation, he sings “Tamparuli always has electricity cuts, wake up in the morning to brush teeth but there is no water, go to the kitchen but only air comes out from the tap, go to the water tank, there’s only enough water to bathe, it’s the same every two or three days...how do we face it my friend, there’s no water almost every day and night.”

The unknown singer’s words in the 84-second clip resonated with many Sabahans, who over the last six months or perhaps more, have been facing severe water shortages ranging from dry taps in the west coast to “salty” water in the east coast of the state.

Their frustrations might be masked but as the days go by, anger is creeping in, from housewives trying to keep their homes in order to businessmen struggling to operate without water.

They want solutions now, not just assurances and big plans for dams in the future.

The issue of water shortage across Sabah dominated the four-day Sabah State Assembly meeting last month, with assemblymen pushing for immediate and permanent solutions to be put in place.

Elopura assemblyman Calvin Chong even came to the Assembly with a bottle of water to prove his point about the saline water in Sandakan.

He offered reporters a taste of the “salty” water that over 300,000 consumers in the Sandakan east coast district had to bear with over the last six to eight months.

Water issues from nearly every district in Sabah was raised at the Assembly.

Deputy Chief Minister III and Works Minister Datuk Shahelmey Yahya, who took over the ministry in January this year, had to take “bullets” coming from all directions – from both government backbenchers and the Opposition.

He acknowledged there were a lot of shortcomings and failures by the department.

Shahelmey assured the assemblymen that a revamp was on the cards for the state Water Department as well as an internal audit as his ministry was looking into increasing manpower and finding short and long-term solutions to address water woes.

In the midst of the assurances at the sitting from May 22 to 25, a move was done without any fanfare to put a new director in the department.

Former Beaufort water engineer Suhaimi Asbullah took over from Baharuhom Sogon in an apparent move by the state government to revamp the utility organisation.

The water crisis could not have come at a worse time as the public follow the details of the ongoing multi-million ringgit corruption trial of former Sabah Water Department director Ag Mohd Tahir, 59, his wife Fauziah Piut, 57, and state government technical advisor Lim Lam Beng, 66.

They are being tried on 37 counts of money laundering involving cash and bank savings amounting to RM61.57mil, as well as unlawful possession of luxury goods between October and November 2016.

Ag Tahir and his deputy director Teo Chee Kong were among dozens of state water officials arrested in one of the biggest national corruption cases when cash, property and valuables worth over RM100mil were recovered in 2016.

Teo, who was initially slapped with 147 money laundering charges in connection with the case, paid a RM30mil fine with charges dropped against him.

He has become a key prosecution witness in the case against Ag Tahir.

In his witness testimony at the ongoing trial, Teo painted a picture of systematic corruption in the utility department where officials from district to division levels were getting kickbacks from water contracts worth millions of ringgit.

His testimony implicated two former Sabah Barisan Nasional ministers.

The newly appointed director Suhaimi, 58, also testified as a witness in court last week.

He also admitted to receiving RM1.6mil in cash under a “contribution collection scheme”.

Suhaimi, who was also arrested during the 2016 investigations, said the money was voluntarily handed over to MACC during their investigations in 2016.

Nearly all the water engineers were arrested by the MACC, which did not pursue further action and many of them like Suhaimi had testified in the ongoing trial.

The witness testimonies are definitely sensational, providing plenty of juicy chatter in coffeeshops.

The ordinary man in Sabah is wondering why after 60 years of independence, the basic need for water is still an issue.

Millions of ringgit from state and federal funds have been poured into the state utility agency, yet the situation remains critical.

It is no secret that successive state governments since 1963 have failed to solve the water problem in Kota Kinabalu and major towns – be it Tawau, Sandakan, Lahad Datu and Keningau in the interior.

“The water problem is passed from one government to another without a comprehensive and holistic approach to resolve the issue either by the government or the water department,” a former top water official remarked.

Preferring to be anonymous, he said blaming non-revenue water (ranging from water theft to burst pipes) is not an excuse.

“Sabah has always been recording about 52% to 60% NRW over the last 10 years.

“But the overall water supply to consumers was not disrupted completely, as what is happening currently.

“Yes, burst piples and pumps not working are a daily affair.

“But they are addressed and water supply disruption is only temporary.

“It should not be dragging on for months, something is wrong somewhere with our water department,” said the official who is familiar with the workings of the utility company.

He stressed that the state government should focus on improving the organisational behaviour of the department as well as looking into water production, quality, network and distribution.

“They should use innovative technology to beef up water treatment plants, enhance performance and reduce wastage of clean water,” he said.

The former official, like many Sabahans, is hoping that the new director “accelerates” measures to meet consumer needs across the state.

To them, it is not about building a multi-billion ringgit dam to resolve the problem.

It is about ensuring there is a proper mechanism to distribute water to homes and businesses.

The pressure is on the state government led by Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor.

As of June 1, Sabah got a breather after Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim committed to injecting RM320mil in federal aid for immediate solutions to the state’s water woes.

The question remains if the Sabah Water Department will be able to turn things around to meet the aspirations of the man on the street for clean water to flow from their taps.

Not only does it need to fulfil the basic duty of delivering water, it has to put in place a long-term water management plan to mitigate future water scarcity predicted in 50 to 100 years due to climate change.