Road projects will facilitate water main extensions to rural communities, says Utilities Ministry

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Bernama file photo for illustration purposes.

KUCHING: The implementation of road projects will facilitate water main extensions to reach more rural communities, said the Ministry of Utilities.

In a statement today, the ministry said the extensions will be done along the existing roads that can be connected and supplied from the existing water supply systems.

“The government’s strategy to increase rural water supply coverage includes extension of water supply mains and implementation of the Sarawak Alternative Water Supply (Sawas) programme to ensure the rural ‘rakyat’ get their basic utility of water supply.

“A total estimated cost of RM135 million has been allocated for the next phase of the Sawas programme under Projek Rakyat, which will contribute towards achieving our target of full potable water supply coverage by 2025.

“Where feasible, Sawas will be synchronised with the Sarawak Alternative Rural Electrification Scheme (Sares) project as electrical power is required for the operation of most of the standalone water supply system as part of the integrated plan for rural communities,” it said.

This was said in response to a statement by Datuk Joseph Entulu Belaun of Parti Sarawak Bersatu (PSB) yesterday, saying that the RM6 billion fund of the Second Trunk Road project should be utilised on rural infrastructure development.

Entulu had said the funds should be channelled to improve the livelihood of the rural community who had no access to clean water, electricity, telephone services, internet connection, proper road access and inadequate healthcare.

In light of the economic constraints due to the Covid-19 pandemic, he then stressed that the state government should look at the practicality of the situation when carrying out a project of such scale.

Meanwhile, the ministry stressed that the state government is aggressively implementing water and electricity supply projects to improve existing services and increase coverage to rural areas in the state.

Having developed the water supply and rural electricity supply master plans, the ministry said their implementations will be charted in a holistic and systematic manner as they will cater for the changing needs of the communities to access the needed utilities.

For water supply, it said the Sarawak Water Supply Master Plan and Water Grid is a holistic approach for sustainable development of raw and treated water facilities, where the strategies include the implementation of water grid, utilisation of of downstream of hydro-electric power (HEP) dam as a source of raw water as well as other raw water source development; implementation of Sawas programme and improving the reliability of water supply system.

The water grid proposal covers both raw and treated water, where the raw water grid will involve water abstraction, raw water basin transfer, new water supply dams as well as harnessing water downstream of HEP dams through natural rivers and canals.

“The proposed treated water grid will traverse Sarawak from the south to the north, linking the water treatment facilities along the way to form a continuous water grid.

“New pipelines will be laid to fill the existing missing links, improving connectivity and resilience of the water supply infrastructure. At the same time existing undersized trunk mains will have to be upgraded too,” it said.

With that being said, the ministry pointed out the proposed new water supply schemes and water grid identified in the master plan will be put forward for funding for implementation under the 12th Malaysia Plan.

For electricity supply, the ministry said the rural electricity master plan aimed to supply through various connection schemes to achieve full 24-hour electricity supply coverage for all rural communities throughout the state – where rural communities with accessibility will be connected to the power grid system.

Communities in remote parts of Sarawak without accessibility will be supplied through standalone renewable solar or mini-hydro system under Sares, it said.