KUCHING: Six water treatment plants namely Bau, Lundu, Sematan, Seniawan, Tapah and Lichok have achieved water quality well beyond the National Drinking Water Quality Standard (NDWQS), said Minister of Utilities Datuk Seri Dr Stephen Rundi Utom.
He said the NDWQS was below five Nephelometric Turbidity Units (NTU), with zero violation and turbidity of between 0.4 NTU to 0.8 NTU consistently.
“This effort will be extended to other water treatment plants progressively,” he said in his winding-up speech at the State Legislative Assembly sitting here today.
In a related development, Stephen said the scope of Projek Rakyat (People’s Projects) included water treatments plants, pipelines, reservoirs and booster stations, that are required to effectively resolve immediate water supply issues.
“Projek Rakyat comprises 324 projects, with an estimated requirement of RM2.8 billion. Currently, 49 projects have been completed and commissioned, 142 projects are under construction, totalling 191 projects costing almost RM2 billion.
“When completed, these projects will increase the treatment capacities, thereby increasing the volume of water delivered as well as improve water pressure in the water-stressed areas,” he added.
Meanwhile, on electricity, Stephen noted that Sarawak’s present total installed grid generating capacity was about 4,600 megawatts (MW) and to further optimise it, two generating units of 312MW each at Balingian Coal Plant, will be commissioned in 2019.
He said under the Northern Agenda plan, the new 275 kilovolt (kV) Bunut substation was under construction, and scheduled to be completed in 2021 and will be connected to Similajau, Miri, Limbang and Lawas, via 275kV transmission lines.
Stephen who is also Kemena assemblyman said, currently about 9 per cent or 29,600 of rural households were without 24-hours electricity supply.
“The implementation of these 24-hour electricity supply strategies requires a total of RM3.22 billion for full electrification by 2025.
“An amount of RM2.37 billion has been approved by the Sarawak Government for 2019 and 2020, which will provide electricity to 20,000 households, increasing the rural electrification coverage from 91 per cent to 97 per cent,” he added. – Bernama
