LABUAN WATER SUPPLY ‘LEAK’ IN PARLIAMENT?

By: DAP MEDIA

THE shortage of water in the F. T. Labuan Island was brought up by the Kota Kinabalu Member of Parliament Dr. Hiew King Cheu in Parliament recently on the 1st of December 2010 in the Q n A session.

He asked the Minister of Energy, Green Technology and Water Dato’ Sri Peter Chin Fah Kui whether the government has some long term plans to ensure Labuan has steady and interrupted water supply in the future. If not, what are the short and immediate plans to solve the water shortage in Labuan Island?

Dato’ Chin in his answer said that his ministry understands the water shortage problem in Labuan especially when there is a long spell of drought. There are short term and long term plans to tackle the problems as follows:-

1. To install a 21 inches diameter pipe line to the water treatment work which can produce 6.24 million liters of water per day at Jalan Kolam and surrounding area. The progress is about 98% completed and expected to be completed in March 2011,

2. A packet to produce 3 million liters of water per day to supply to TUDM Tanjong Kubong and the area. This is about 98% completed and expected to test and commission this early December,

3. To build a water treatment plant to process 3 million liters of water daily at Sungai Kinabenua in the Kiamsan area. The progress of the project is 62% and expected to be completed during January 2011, and

4. The plan to supply 0.2 million of water daily to the Kolej Matrikulasi Labuan is 90% completed and will be completed by January 2011.

As for the long term planning, the government is launching a project to extend the water treatment plant in Beaufort (Phase 2) which will increase the supply of treated water to Labuan with an additional of 38.8 million liters per day.

The cost of the project cost is RM 383 million and expected to be ready earliest by Febuary 2011. When all these projects are ready, Labuan water supply will get 94.2 million liters of water per day compared to the existing 38 million liters per day now, and these shall last until 2020.

Dr. Hiew also asked on the Multi-million Petronas Methanol Plant which is in operation and in difficult on getting enough water for the smooth production process. The plant is not working on its full capacity due to serious lack of water supply.

Dato’ Chin replied that it is true that the plant cannot operate fully due to the lack of water especially during the dry season, and sometime has to cease operation due to lack of water in the whole of Labuan.

Petronas will have its own water treatment plant to cope with the problem. This is only for the industry use and not for human consumption. There is an agreement between the ministry and the Petronas Methanol Plant to supply treated industrial water to the plant and this will be billed accordingly.

Dr. Hiew said the whole problem is still depending on the water source, and all the projects will be dead if the sources dried up. He suggests to partly help to solve the water shortage problem in Labuan is by using the ‘Desalination Process’ in turning the sea water to domestic use, and also because there is plenty of natural gas available in Labuan.

This technology is widely used by many other countries and is proven successful. The water source in Beaufort is limited in long drought period and the Padas River can be dry, what happen then? Labuan will still face water shortage. He urges the government to study this possibility and build the plant immediately.