10 WATER TANKERS TO BE DEPLOYED TO REDUCE WATER WOES AT UNIVERSITY APARTMENT SEPANGGAR

Chia and members from the relevant State Government and Fire and Rescue Department who attended the meeting on Monday.

30 March 2021

KOTA KINABALU: Some 5,000 residents of University Apartment in Sepanggar can soon expect the end of water woes that have been plaguing them for weeks as 10 water tankers will be deployed at the area to help boost water supply.

Political Secretary to the Chief Minister, Dr Roland Chia Ming Shen said the immediate solution will be deployed beginning April 1.

In a press statement today, he said they agreed to the proposal of using water tankers owned by several government departments and agencies from both State and Federal to supply water to the afflicted residents after attending the Coordination Meeting between the State Government and the Fire and Rescue Department in addressing the water crisis at University Apartment which held on Monday, March 29.

“If we were to use private water tankers, the cost will be RM700 per trip. Since we are using government owned water tankers, we can use them for free as a service to the people there,” he said.

The water supplied is also free of charge, he added.

Aside from the Universiti Apartment Phase 1, other residential areas that will benefit from the immediate solution are University Condo 1 and Universiti Prime Condo, which are also located in Sepanggar.

The effort has been made possible thanks to a taskforce comprising of the Chief Minister’s Department, the Fire and Rescue Departments of Kota Kinabalu and Tuaran, the Water Departments from Kota Kinabalu, Tuaran and Papar and the District Offices of Penampang, Papar and Tuaran as well as the Kota Kinabalu City Hall, he said.

Chia also added that the management of the University Apartment has already been informed of the upcoming task which will take place in two days.

“We will be monitoring the situation to ensure everything goes smoothly,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Sabah Water Department has also begun water rationing for areas that are getting their water supply from the Telibong Water Treatment plant.

“This was the first approach to resolve the water woes at University Apartment,” he said, adding that the department also adopted another approach which is the sharing of water supply between Kota Kinabalu and Tuaran.

“We hope that it will bring relief to the people staying at the apartments who have been facing water shortage problems for weeks."