MIRI – The state will construct new water treatment plants to meet the increasing needs, said state Public Utilities and Telecommunications Minister Datuk Julaihi Narawi.
Speaking when visiting the water treatment plant in Song district in central Sarawak today, he said the domestic household demand for treated piped water is surging along with the increasing population and socio-economic activities.
“For example, in the district of Song, we (state government) will have to construct a new water treatment plant with raw water treatment capacity of 20 million litres per day.
“The existing treatment plant of four million litres capacity per day is not sufficient.
“In Kapit district, we will need to build a new treatment plant with a treatment capacity of 50 million litres per day.
“The existing demand of 38.5 million litres per day is surging as domestic demands keep rising constantly,” he said.
Julaihi said that for Kapit, water distribution pipe networks measuring 170km long are also expanding as more populated zones are being connected to the main grid.
Similar situations of increasing water needs are happening all over rural Sarawak, he noted.
Rural Sarawak has some 6,000 longhouses, with about a million of the state’s three million population still living in these rural locations.
Not only longhouses and villages have shown greater demand for treated water; rural schools and new townships are also in need of the resource. – The Vibes, August 23, 2023
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