Dato Sri Fatimah Abdullah
KUCHING: The acute water shortage in Kabong, Betong is gradually recovering, said Minister for Welfare, Community Wellbeing, Women, Family and Childhood Development Dato Sri Fatimah Abdullah.
Fatimah said only 120 households were affected as of Saturday night.
Water woes in Kabong and Roban began on May 9 when a 500mm main pipe burst during a road construction and also repairing activities at the Pan Borneo Highway.
Fatimah said the State Rural Water Supply Department confirmed that the burst happened on May 9 and repair work was done on May 10.
Interestingly May 9 was the date of the 14th general election.
According to the feedback from the Department ground staff, the repair work on Thursday caused a total shutdown of water supply for Kabong and Roban, adding that full recovery of the water supply to the areas, which have a population of about 20,000 may take time.
A screenshot of Wan Abdillah’s posting on Facebook.
“As of now most areas have recovered. Our ground staff estimated that currently, there are about 120 households who are still affected but water tankers are deployed everyday,” the department press statement said.
The water woe in Kabong was brought to light by a public complainant Dato Wan Abdillah Edruce of Pemuda Islam Sarawak.
In a Facebook posting, Wan Abdillah urged the state government to direct relevant agencies to distribute water to Malay majority Kabong.
“If possible, we collect at least 100 boxes of drinking or mineral water. With God’s help, I can help to send these boxes to Kabong. The timing of this water cut-off is also not right when people are fasting in this month of Ramadan,” he said, adding that those who wished to be volunteers in water distribution are advised to get in touch with him.
Besides asking interested volunteers to personal message him on Facebook, he also asked netizens to share his posting.