Aerial view of Pusa village that covers both the new and old village across the river.
Ahmad Zaki showing the project papers and photographs of development on the ground.
The red line shows proposed piping project.
Ahmad Zaki (wearing baseball cap) listening to a JBALB officer on proposed upgrading work of Pusa water supply. On the right is director of Sarawak Development Office, Mohd Zaki Mahyuddin.
KUCHING: The project to improve the water reticulation and water supply system in Pusa and Beladin has been recently tendered out on February 28 and will be closed on March 19.
Construction work for this project, titled “Projek Naiktaraf Sistem Perpaipan Bekalan Air Kawasan Pusa, DUN Beting Maro, Sarawak” is expected to commence at the end of April. The construction period will be 12 months.
“The objective of this project, costing RM12 million, is to replace the undersized and aging pipelines in the kampung areas especially in Pusa and Beladin, to assist in reducing non-revenue water (NRW) and improve the water pressure to Kampung Pusa Seberang (namely Kampung Hulu, Kampung Tengah and Kampung Hilir) and Kampung Beladin,” said Director-General of Implementation Coordination Unit of Prime Minister’s Department (ICU JPM) Tan Sri Ahmad Zaki Ansore.
This project was announced and promised by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak on May 2, 2016 when he declared open Sekolah Kebangsaan Pusa, Betong, Sarawak.
Speaking to The Borneo Post in an exclusive interview today, Ahmad Zaki stressed that they are fully aware of the hardship faced by the villagers and he personally visited the project on the ground on Saturday after learning about it from the media.
During his visit to Pusa, he was accompanied by Director of Sarawak Development Office (SDO) Mohd Zaki Mahyuddin; Deputy Director of Rural Water Supply Department (JBALB) Rodziah Mohammad; officers from JBALB Sarawak and Administrative Officer from Pusa District Office Iszarul Japar.
The biggest challenge now, according to Ahmad Zaki, is that most of the pipes in Kampung Pusa are too old, leaking and buried deep underneath the newly-built village road.
“The existing pipes are too old, lots of leaking and after the upgrading of kampung roads they are buried deeper,” he said.
The scope of the projects will include decommissioning all the existing aging and undersized pipelines; laying of new distribution and reticulation pipelines along designated proper corridor with all necessary gate valves, washouts, air valves and fire hydrants.
A new storage tank will also be constructed to ensure storage during of peak hours and booster pump station to ensure good water pressure.
He stressed that the District Officer from Pusa District Office, together with the local elected representatives, will arrange for a dialogue session to engage the villagers and explain to them about the project. Apart from that, the dialogue session will be an opportunity for the local elected representatives to inform the people about government policy and progress of government projects.