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SANDAKAN – Umno Batu Sapi leaders have defended themselves over water supply problems in Kg Bambangan here, saying that a RM5 million allocation has been approved to solve the problem.
Hazulizah Mohd Dani, the party’s community development leader for Sekong where the village is located, denied villagers’ claims that she ignored their pleas for water supply.
The Umno candidate for the state seat in Sabah’s elections in 2020 said she had been working hard there even though she was defeated by Warisan’s Alias Sani.
“We raised the problem to the federal Rural Development Ministry multiple times since last year. After the census by the Water Department, the ministry had allocated RM5 million under the 12th Malaysia Plan to provide water supply in Kg Bambangan.
“We met with the minister, Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid again earlier this month to push for speedy implementation. We were told that the project is now under tender process between the federal Rural Development Ministry and the Water Department,” she said.
Hazulizah said this at a press conference held in Kg Bambangan today, saying that she wanted to clear the air after The Vibes reported on the hardship of Kg Bambangan’s villagers who have been living without clean water supply.
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The village, in the Sekong state seat, is also in the Batu Sapi federal seat, which is currently vacant after the passing of its MP, Datuk Liew Vui Keong in October 2020. He was also Warisan permanent chairman.
Village chief Mahalan Yassin said despite promises from various election candidates from different parties who came to the village, people here never received clean water supply.
Mahalan also said the relevant authorities, including Hazulizah, should come to the village to see living conditions there without clean water.
Alias, the Sekong assemblyman from Warisan, has yet to respond to The Vibes’ requests for comment.
Meanwhile, the seat’s former assemblyman, Umno’s Datuk Samsudin Yahya, said that when he represented the constituency, he had successfully obtained an RM2 million allocation from the rural development ministry to solve Kg Bambangan’s water problems in 2018.
However, he said the allocation was retracted before the project could start, as the Barisan Nasional government was ousted by Pakatan Harapan in the general election that year.
Not only that, the RM68 million allocated for water supply for 13 villages in the Sekong Island Zone, was also retracted, Samsudin said.
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“This is very sad. We hope that the current government, led by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob, who is also from Umno, would return these allocations and resume these projects for the people,” he said at the same press conference today.
Samsudin added that Mahdzir and Sabah Rural Development Minister Datuk Jahid Jahim had visited Batu Sapi and witnessed the hardships of villagers who have lived without clean water supply for decades.
Kg Bambangan has over 200 houses with over 1,000 villagers, who have been relying on muddy rainwater channelled from the forest. The village is only 45 minutes away from Sandakan town.
It has a primary school – SK Bambangan – that still uses rainwater for daily operations. – The Vibes, August 22, 2022
