LAKU: Piped water safe for consumption

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Franklin (right) fields question from the press while others look on.

MIRI: Consumers here are assured that piped water to their homes is safe for consumption, following an incident of a primary school boy found dead in a raw water storage basin at Miri-Bintulu Road Friday afternoon.

Chief executive officer of Northern Region Water Board (Laku) Management Sdn Bhd, Franklin Ucar, said it was important for the public to differentiate between raw and treated water.

“Water at the storage basin is raw water. In the past, we used it as a backup in the event of contingencies, like during drought. It is not raw water for immediate processing by LAKU to be used for the public,” he said when asked for his comments on the case of Hairil Iskandar, 11, who drowned at the raw water storage basin at KM15, Miri-Bintulu road about noon yesterday.

LAKU water quality control executive Lizsberth Ngana Jun John and senior financial manager Affendi Taher were also present at the news conference.

Franklin said a security guard at the raw water storage basin had contacted the supervisor of Lambir Water Treatment Plant, Clayvian Joshua, about the drowned boy.

He said an ensuing inspection of the area, which was completely fenced, found that a section of the fence had been cut.

He also said the 10.2-acre basin about 2km from the water treatment plant, is classified as a protected and restricted area, and being watched and checked twice daily by the security guards, one in the morning and the other in the evening.

“This morning (yesterday) it is clear that somebody has removed the repaired hole along the fence. It happened in the middle of the day outside our routine checking time.

“We, however, cannot make any speculation but we can see that somebody has definitely broken into the area by removing the repaired hole to enter the place,” he said, “which is not far from Kampung Lambir”.