KABONG: Residents in several villages around this area are still facing water supply problems. As such they hope the Rural Water Supply Department (JBALB) will take immediate action to restore water supply in the affected areas.
A resident of Kampung Sungai Endot, Olen Tabur said Kampung Sungai Endot continued to be overwhelmed by the endless water supply problems.
“Since the pipeline was changed in December 2017, water supply problems continue to occur in our village from the beginning of 2018 until now.
“The water pressure is too low and does not reach the residents’ homes. Prior to this although there were problems with the water supply, at night or to be precise, at midnight there was water for storage when not many residents from other areas were using water. But now there is no water at all even at night, “he lamented.
Olen added that among the steps taken by the JBALB was that they promised to supply the water to the village within three days. At that moment water supply to other areas will be temporarily shut down for several hours to supply the water to the village. But that promise has not been fully fulfilled as there were times when water supplied to the village came only after five days.
“When the water is channelled to the village it takes an hour to reach people’s house. And within two hours the supply is closed again and there are residents who do not manage to stock up water. That’s the situation we have been facing for a long time.
“The blue water tanks were given to us but there’s no water to fill them with. Now we only rely on rainwater for daily use,” he said.
Kampung Sungai Endot village chief, Ismail Bujang when met said the water problem faced by the villagers had been going on for far too long.
“During the period of water problems, JBALB delivered water by using lorries on a daily basis from Betong. But the amount of water delivered is limited and not enough to be distributed to the villagers.
“There are times when two lorries are operating and sometimes only one is sent out to deliver water starting from noon until 9pm.
“There are about 700 people in our village affected by water shortage problem. Sometimes, the water supplied is only for several houses”, he said.
Kampung Sungai Endot Lot village chief, Mohammad Man who was also met concurred with Ismail’s statement and said the water shortage was still a big problem for the villagers.
“We hope the JBALB will take immediate action to restore water supply to our village. The allocation for restoring water supply to our village was announced by the Chief Minister last year but the progress is too slow and there is no positive change to the people here.
“Short-term measures need to be figured out to ensure constant water supply to the villagers.
“The second pipe connecting Roban Cross to Nyabor junction has been planned and will be constructed by JBALB. Its implementation needs to be promptly done as mentioned previously. Hopefully that will solve the current problem we are facing, “he said.
