KOTA KINABALU – After shelving plans for the return of Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd (SESB) to the state, the Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) state government has now come under fire for wanting to hand over water services to a third party.
According to Sepanggar MP Datuk Azis Jamman, the longstanding water crisis in his constituency has reached a boiling point, but proposing the handover of the state’s water services to a third party smacks of a lesson never learnt.
“We should learn from history. When Sabah Electricity Board (the precursor to SESB before privatisation) was handed over to Tenaga Nasional Bhd, did our power distribution improve?
“GRS is already holding back plans for the return of SESB, and now they want to give our water services to another agency,” he said to The Vibes.
He stressed that the matter was sensitive as water management and supply are essential public amenities.
Sabah’s power generation and supply were handed over to the federal government, and later put under Tenaga Nasional Bhd, 35 years ago.
Some time after May 2018 when the federal government was won by Pakatan Harapan and Sabah by Warisan, Putrajaya agreed to return SESB to at the request of the then state government.
However, when GRS wrested the Sabah government in the state’s snap polls in September last year, it put a hold on the takeback, citing financial constraints faced by SESB.
With the patience of thousands of Sepanggar residents running thin over incessant water disruptions, state Works Minister Datuk Seri Bung Moktar Radin, who is in charge of the Sabah Water Department, yesterday said that the time may have come for water supply management in Sabah to be handed to a third party.
“I will table the proposal to the Sabah cabinet. This is not an easy thing as it involves spending billions of ringgit to solve the problem,” he said.
Water authority under state’s purview
Azis said the present government is now being seen as giving away the state’s control over public utilities. He stressed that Sabahans can no longer place hope on the administration on matters of protecting and managing such services.
The Warisan Youth chief also noted that the authority over and funding of water services now comes under the state.
He said that he had questioned the water utility’s ownership in Parliament, and the federal ministry had responded that the matter comes under the state, including the handling of all the funds channelled from federal to the state.
“Now where is Bung Moktar? Why is he saying all this now? Isn’t he in Melaka? Why should he be there when he is supposed to be in Sabah and resolve all these problems?” said Azis.
In a recent viral video, tempers flared at University Utama Condominium (UUC) in Sepanggar, as a tenant was allegedly made to pay the surcharge for water services by the condominium’s management corporation despite not getting a drop of water.
The residential apartment was undergoing water rationing, which according to the woman had been going on for six months, but water was only made available when most tenants were at home.
UUC, which houses thousands of people, is not the only residential apartment facing this problem. University Condo Apartments is also facing the same issue.
The incessant water disruptions in Sepanggar and Tuaran stem from the failure of water pumps at the Telibong water treatment plant.
A dialogue between tenants, management corporation, and the Water Department is now being planned at UCA2 tomorrow.
Azis, who plans to be present at the dialogue, said he has exhausted his own funds assisting the people in these apartments, adding that the government does not provide allocations to opposition reps to resolve problems like this. – The Vibes, November 19, 2021
