Government should walk the talk: Warisan
Published on: Friday, December 01, 2023
By: Hayati Dzulkifli
As for water supply problem, Azhar said it is sufficient for him to refer such issue in his constituency especially in Kingfisher Park 2 area which is closest to the State Legislative Assembly.
Kota Kinabalu: DARAU Assemblyman Azhar bin Datuk Matussin called on the State Government to walk the talk in realising allocations, projects and policies as stated in the 2024 State Budget.
Through the tabling of the budget, referring to paragraph 109, he said there was an allocation of RM679.85 million to manage and deal with water shortage problems, and RM156.77 million for short-term and immediate solutions to water problems.
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There was as much as RM258.05 million allocated for medium and long-term solutions for the water woes in Sabah, he said.
“Thank you for this allocation, but don’t let it be just like a popular Malay proverb - Letting go of a cough on the stairs, which means like nice to hear about the plentiful and huge allocations which are impressive and pretty on paper but not on the implementation of projects
“Therefore, I hope that in 2024, the water issue will be resolved completely as many people in Sabah are suffering due to the perennial water supply problem,” he said when debating the 2024 State Budget at the State Legislative Assembly here.
While supporting the proposed 2024 State Budget, he asked the government how many percent of the total 2023 budget of RM5.138 billion had been implemented, so far.
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“I ask this question because there are too many disruptions to basic needs in Sabah this year, especially water, electricity and roads. This is a basic matter that should only be discussed administratively and no longer as a headline at the government level.
“Referring to a table from the Malaysian Energy Commission (ST) website, the System Average Interruptions Index (SAIDI) in Sabah under the Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd (Sesb), is seen to have a bad upward trend compared to the Saidi in the Peninsula under the supervision of Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB).
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“Saidi Sabah in 2019 were 205.31 minutes, it decreased to 189.44 minutes in 2020 and in 2021 there was an increase in disruption to 332.14 minutes,
“In 2022 there was a slight decrease to 296.22 minutes but rose again this year. As of August 2023, the total number of Saidi recorded were 351.53 minutes on an annualised basis,” he said.
In the Peninsula, Azhar said the ST website showed the Saidi for TNB in 2019 were 28.13 minutes, and dropped to 44.95 minutes (2020), 45.21 (2021), 45.06 (2022) and as of Aug this year, recorded 30.51 minutes in annualised basis.
As for water supply problem, he said it is sufficient for him to refer such issue in his constituency especially in Kingfisher Park 2 area which is closest to the State Legislative Assembly.
“Total water disruption from Sept 2023 until Nov 24, 2023 were 36 days. It means that in a period of 85 days there are 36 days of water supply interruption. We can express this as ‘Extreme Disruption’ in this era of digitalisation,” he said.
He lamented the roads condition in Sabah that were suddenly and immediately upgraded and improved with the presence of the Yang Di-Pertuan Agong, the Queen and their royal families through the “Kembara Kenali Borneo” programme in September this year.
He said such roads looked good on an adhoc basis and now, the people of Sabah were starting to feel the condition of the road before the “Kembara Kenali Borneo” programme.
Azhar said the State Government must relocate residents of three villages in Darau, namely Kg Rampayan Laut, Kg Seradan and Kg Tobur, as soon as possible, because they are facing the risk of flooding.
“In January 2020, Kg Bahagia near Kg Darau has been approved and gazetted as a village for the residents of Kg Rampayan Laut, Kg Seradan and Kg Tobur that face the risk of flooding. However, they have yet to be relocated to Kg Bahagia.
“Last week, once again those three villages area were hit by floods and the people who were supposed to be evacuated are still dealing with the flood situation which is harming them, particularly I November 2023 and the Northeast Monsson is starting for Sabah, we will receive rainfall between 100mm and 400mm.
“Hence, the government needs to ensure the residents of the three villages can be relocated immediately because they once again face the risk of flooding,” he said.
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