SABAH’s water woes are the dread of households in the state. The lack of clean water has an adverse effect on people’s work and lives. We should not be having this problem in this day and age, and yet here we are, collecting and storing water.
Sabah’s acute water woes are not a new phenomenon but rather a compounded one.
Originally, Sabah’s water works were under the state, including water treatment and distribution. In the early 1990s, water treatment plants in Sabah were privatised by the state government.
This was done after the completion of the Babagon Dam in Penampang and the subsequent takeover of the state water treatment plant by a group of companies. The insidious question raised over coffee then was what the purpose of such an exercise was.
My late uncle was an employee of the state and had manned a water treatment plant in Sandakan. He told us about the intricacies of the plant’s operations at his house balcony overlooking the borehole pump house. The water treatment plant then was maintained by the state and called Sabah Water Works.
The water treatment plant now is operated by a few companies that would bill the state government for work done to maintain pump houses, treatment plants, for chemicals, and for distributing treated water to the Sabah Water Department. The state-owned department would then proceed in distributing the water to the public. It is also responsible for maintaining pipes all over the state.
The lack of treated water available in Sabah boils down to severe mismanagement by the state. Water Department staff are powerless with an inadequate budget to tackle this perennial issue.
Making the matter worse, the top echelon is engaging in corrupt practices.
This was shown in 2016’s Sabah Watergate scandal, whereby millions were discovered in the office of the Sabah Water Department. The RM3.3-billion scandal involved funds allocated for water infrastructure in Sabah, which never materialised.
The proposed Kaiduan or Papar Dam has drawn heavy criticism from the public. It should help the populace in the long run, but everyone involved in the dam has their own interest.
Meanwhile, the public have been held hostage by the lack of available clean water.
It is just not that we do not have the raw water available but rather, it has been prolonged mismanagement by certain individuals and groups that would rather see the public without clean water, than to have it at the expense of their own interests. – The Vibes, May 21, 2023
Remy Majangkim is an MA63 historian, researcher, activist, and tutor
