KOTA KINABALU: The Water Department will start building the Tawau Dam by the end of this year.
The department’s head of water distribution, Quirine @ Quirinus Jokinol said at the Sabah World Rivers Day Conference and Exhibition 2017 recently that the dam would be able to supply raw water to the Utara Timur Plant, which was already old.
Quirine was replying to a question posed by a reporter concerning the safety of the drinking water supplied by the Utara Timur Plant which was now located at the Tawau city centre due to the developments that have taken place around it over the years.
The reporter asked if the drinking water for the Tawau folks could be derived from a plant that does not go through industrial and squatter area and was contaminated with their discharges.
The reporter asked if the plant could be set up further up river, perhaps at the Tawau Park.
To this, Quirine replied that they would be building a dam in Tawau which would supply water to the plant by December, this year.
He also mentioned that the water supplied by the departmentcomplied with the health standard.
In his paper entitled “The Reality Challenge – River Water to Household Water Taps in Sabah”, Quirine disclosed that Sabah had over 60 major rivers.
He also said that Sabah had 1,400 rivers and tributaries and that the State enjoys almost 3,000 mm of average rainfall.
But unfortunately, Sabah does not have water storage to store the water supply.
He explained that water resources’ reliability and availability were affected by, among others, urban development, industrial and agriculture development, the changes in size and characteristics of water catchments, the management of water supply and resources, inadequate enforcement on water resource protection as well as saline intrusion in surface and underground sources.
He also cited the role played by palm oil plantations in the degradation of water quality in rivers, stating that the majority of the plantations had failed to set up a riparian reserve boundary between their plantation and the river.
“They plant right up to the banks,” he said, showing photographs of acres and acres of palm oil trees lining a river bank.
Quirine also explained that the Water Department treats water the ¡¥conventional way’.
He said that their plants could treat water turbidity of up to 1,000 NTU, and that the drinking water supplied to taps was only 1 NTU, surpassing the National Health requirement of at least 5 NTU.
“Sabah water supply comes from 83 treatment plants, 71 river supplies, eight dams and three off-river storages,” he said.
“About 86 percent of the water supplied to our taps are from river source,” he said.
Quirine also said that despite the high rainfall, Sabah continues to face water shortage and he explained that the reason for this was the high water turbidity.
The Kadamaian River, for example, has reached the turbidity level of 3,000 NTU following the Mt Kinabalu earthquake a few years ago.
“And it is still affecting our supplies to Kota Belud, particularly during storms,” he said.
And the Kogopon River has experienced turbidity of 1,000 NTU and it is on an upward trend.
Similarly, the Moyog River had also experienced turbidity level of up to 4,000 NTU, he said.
Due to the high turbidity level, the Kasigui Water Plant had to be shut down 72 times in 2016. The plant receives water from the Moyog River.
“And the shutdowns of plants are on an upward trend,” he said.
He added that most of the solutions, such as constructing a huge storage capacity like that of a dam and river storage, were costly.
“We need to preserve and protect our rivers to make sure water can reach you. But everyone must have a part in it (the preservation and protection),” he said.