I strongly urge the Chief Minister Datuk Seri Panglima Musa Aman, should he arrive at Tawau the day after, announce the commencement of the Cinta Mata Water Dam project in this coming March.
According to reliable sources, Chief Minister would attend the silver jubilee celebration of UMNO Kalabakan.
The UMNO Kalabakan Chief who is also Member Parliament of Kalabakan, Datuk Seri Ghapur Salleh, also criticized the state Infrastructural Development Ministry and Water Department for failing to solve the water disruption and it would reflect badly to BN government. He said “something concrete should be done immediately”.
I believe that Ghapur would raise up this issue in front of Musa definitely. But we Rakyat do not need lip service, Musa should execute his power and does something concrete immediately, announce the construction of Cinta Mata Water Dam, no more delay, regardless how bad of government financial status. People interest always come first.
I also remind both Musa and Ghapur that, the construction of Cinta Mata Water Dam should be resumed starting this March, and there are now two more days count down before March. When would the first piling of work?
The recent water crisis in Tawau has alerted the people of the district that, no more grace period they should tolerate. The Cinta Mata Water Dam, should be started it’s construction immediately, after twenty over years of long delay.
Delivering water by tankers is not the solution. Even though water tankers increase to 20 units, but there are only four water taking points in the district. You can see long queue of water tankers before the water taking point, for instance in front of Taman Rainbow, Jalan Kuhara. My members took one hour just to wait for filling water to his tankers. From receiving demand to deliver water until deliver it to the destination, easily it takes three days for waiting as the demand is just too many.
The only long term solution for Tawau water woes, is to build its long delayed water dam. Besides, middle term solution is also needed, while waiting for construction of water dam in the next five years.
Hereby I suggest a few measures. First, as I mentioned before, dispatch the mobile water treatment unit to Tawau, to take water from other source, in case the water intake level is low in Utara Plant. Second, study the feasibility of installing bypass, from Cinta Mata water plant distribution line to Utara one. Third, do dredging to deepen Sungai Tawau, to increase its water retention capacity.
Towards the end, I demand Musa to allocate special emergency funding to carry out work immediately, especially those middle term solution.