Tan Sri Pairin Kitingan, the State Minister for Infrastructure Development was told to explain the reason on why the commencement of the Cinta Mata water dam construction has been delayed. BN government should not fail the rakyat here who are waiting and hoping that the project funds could be allocated as soon as possible to solve flood issues and water shortage in the district, once and for all.
The proposed new water dam at Cinta Mata, Merotai should be commenced by this month. According to the written answer obtained by him in state assembly sitting this April, Ministry of Infrastructure Development has officially stated that, the proposed Cinta Mata water dam has been approved for implementation and the project is estimated to take off by this month. The whole project construction could take about 5 years to complete.
What is the status for the project now? Still under stage of Value Engineering as stipulated by Federal Government for the soft loan approval? This is a long overdue project and we still could not see the light at the end of the tunnel. It seems like no development at all. The general public of Tawau has the right to know the truth! Tan Sri Minister, please come forward to explain.
The proposed new dam said to have the capacity to supply 30 million litres per day (MLD) and could store an additional 4.6 million cubic meters of water daily of it is raining.
I urge the government to expedite the construction of the water dam with the sense or urgency. The construction cost for the dam would be higher if the project commencement delayed longer. The estimated construction cost is RM415 million, as calculated in last year. With the current devalued Ringgit, what is the cost now?
I make the call when visiting to the Utara Water Plant, which has encountered 30% drop of treated water production, from 50MLD to 34MLD, as the water level in intake river is low, result of dry season since Hari Raya.
We DAP Tawau service centre received numbers of complaints pertaining the low water pressure issue. Some areas, such as Bandar Sri Indah, Sin Onn Tiku, Taman Bersatu, Kg Jawa all started to experience water supply interruptions.
This is the repeated phenomena in Tawau, as the district has faced 50% water shortage this March.
Tawau Water Work can’t do much except focus on distributing water to severely affected areas, through water rationing or sending water in trucks. Nobody knows how long duration for the dry season this round. If the condition worsen, more than 20,000 residents in Tawau would face the severe water shortage problem. It greatly affects our daily lives.
It’s the duty of the government to fulfil the basic needs of the rakyat. How can they ignore Tawau people and let us suffering with the repeated water shortage problem?