Edward points to the icon on the map, which indicates the location of the water treatment plant in Slabi and the surrounding oil palm plantations.
KUCHING: The Serian branch chairman of Democratic Action Party (DAP) Edward Andrew Luwak is calling upon the Sarawak government to consider installing water vending machines in villages that receive piped water supply from the Slabi treatment plant.
Claiming that the raw water intake for the plant comes from a polluted source, he says the proposal for the provision of the water vending machine is made in the interest of the people’s health and well-being.
“The government should bear the cost of installing, operating and maintaining these machines.
“The public should be encouraged to get water from the vending machines for drinking and cooking purposes,” he said in a statement yesterday.
According to Edward, the water intake for the treatment plant in Slabi comes from Sadong River, whereby the catchment area is basically the whole of the upper reaches of the this river together with its tributaries.
He said in the beginning, a large section of the catchment area was virgin jungle, but now, it is surrounded by oil palm plantations, which have been polluting the river and the tributaries.
“Here, we have a catchment area where village settlements have long been established.
“Worse still, permits have been given for the establishment of plantations. In addition, there are hundreds of pepper, cocoa and rubber smallholdings in the Native Customary Rights (NCR) land, as well as Mixed Zone land belonging to people living in the area.
“All these smallholdings apply the use of chemicals and poisons for the maintenance of their farms and gardens,” he said.
Edward pointed out that ideally, a water catchment area for water supply to be consumed should be free from human settlements and agriculture activities that might require the use of chemicals.
He also called upon the relevant authorities to explain how the chemical fertilisers, pesticides, weed killers and affluent from the agriculture activities were being controlled from letting it contaminate the water of Sadong River and its tributaries.
“Inhabitants of the villages, in particular those from Kedup River, have complained about suffering from skin itchiness and rashes after bathing in the rivers and streams,” he added.