Kapit residents and business owners see red over murky tap water

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KAPIT: Residents and business owners here are up in arms over the murky water that is coming out of their taps.

The owner of a bakery, identified only as Ling, showed The Borneo Post the khaki-coloured water being supplied to his taps yesterday.

Ling said he was worried about whether the water is safe for consumption.

Coffee shop customers, who only wished to be known as Ah Tey and Ah Yap, said the water resembled milky tea or coffee.

“The tap water is like teh–c (tea with evaporated milk and sugar). Next time don’t order tea with milk. Just tap water would do because it is the same colour,” said Ah Tey.

Meanwhile, a shopkeeper identified as Ah Hwang complained that his home on the second floor of the building has had dry taps for almost 10 days.

“What happened to the water supply? It seems that the authorities concerned have not been informed of the water supply woes here. My son-in-law Ngu met with a Public Works Department (JKR) staff member and the officer replied that he had no idea. I doubt that he genuinely doesn’t know about the problem.

“Please highlight in the newspaper that the problem is getting very serious. If there is any leakage of the main pipe, one or two days to repair should be enough but the problem has been prolonged for more than a week. This is a very basic thing — water is important to life,” he lamented.

A source with knowledge of the water supply system here said both problems are likely to be due to ageing main pipes, which cannot withstand the strong water pressure from the new water treatment plant extension – commissioned in April – resulting in leaks.

On Wednesday, JKR’s waterworks section worked on repairing a leak at the pipe near the Jalan Selirik and Jalan Sri Baleh junction, while on Tuesday the team had to deal with a leak near the Kapit Chung Hua Kindergarten.

“When the main pipe is running dry of water, the sedimentation starts to deposit in the pipe. When the water flows through, of course all the mud and rust flows out of the taps. Of course, the water filter at home becomes very dirty and blocked. So open and clean them up,” said the man who only wished to be known as Yap.