Retiree forced to cancel holiday plans as Sabah’s water woes dries up life savings

KOTA KINABALU: Sanis Baidis had always wanted to go on a vacation with his wife ever since he went into retirement in 2008.

They could have gone on that getaway straightaway when he retired from a construction job that year but Sanis put off the plans to do some private work and run a small business as he intended to have a bit more cash to supplement their travels.

But little did he know that those dreams would be dashed as the 62-year-old had to use his savings to buy the most basic of things – water.

“I was thinking maybe some islands in Indonesia or the Philippines (for the vacation) but looks like that has to be put on the back burner for now,” Sanis said on Friday (July 21).

This is because, he said, they have a water supply problem at their housing area in the Kota Kinabalu Industrial Park V12 resettlement scheme in Bukit Payung, Tuaran, some 30km from the state capital.

The issue has forced him to buy water from a third party and bottled drinking water from a nearby sundry shop.

“The water we buy from a middleman is only for things like bathing and cleaning as we have to separately buy drinking water for our daily consumption as well.

“I have roughly spent about RM10,000 now, (which consists of) some RM5,000 to buy water supply from the middleman and over RM4,000 for bottled drinking water.

“That is not even counting the number of water tanks I had to buy so I could store water.

“So, I have to be careful with my spending now. Everything is dictated by this water supply situation,” Sanis said.

The middleman sold the water supply at two prices, he explained.

If the middleman used a four-wheel drive vehicle to transport the water, he said, the person will charge RM30 per trip, adding this allowed the middleman to carry a tank that could fill some 400 litres of water.

“If people ordered a larger supply, he will then use his lorry, which has a bigger tank that could carry about 1,000 litres, with an additional fee of RM60 per trip.

“But not many can afford to buy from the middleman, so they have to wait for the Water Department lorry which used to send the water daily,” he said.

Sanis said his housing area only experienced a low water pressure problem during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic sometime in 2020.

They moved to the area in 2010 but then it was not an issue as there were fewer people residing there.

But now, he said, with more people moving in and coupled with the current statewide water supply problem, the issue has turned into a real dilemma for residents.

He said people who resided at an elevated level at the housing area have the worst experience as, due to the low pressure, the water could not even reach their units.

“Those staying at a lower area can still get some water while for myself, as I’m living somewhere in the middle point, the supply is unstable.

“So, people like me had to either depend on the Water Department to send water or buy form the middleman.

“Residents had even resorted to fetch water at the nearby Telibong water treatment plant in Tuaran themselves but only some do that as you need bigger vehicles,” Sanis said.

He said the residents had some respite previously when Sepanggar MP Mustapha Sakmud instructed a batch of lorries to send water to the housing area.

“We really have to be prudent about how we use water. The 400 litres (purchased from the middleman), in addition to some water we can get from the tap, can last us for over a week,” said Sanis, who lives with his family of five at their house.

“But as you can imagine, this is really troublesome, not to mention the amount of money we have to spend just so we can get water.

“At the same time, we are still paying for the water bill despite not getting a consistent water supply,” Sanis said.

He hoped the state government would remedy the issue as soon as possible especially since it received a RM320.25mil allocation from Putrajaya.

Hajiji had said that he was confident the assistance would help the state implement short-term plans to solve the water woes.

He said plans would involve the implementation of six programmes encompassing 20 projects throughout the state including nine projects under district plans for Kota Kinabalu, Tuaran, Putatan, Papar, Beaufort, Keningau, Tawau, Lahad Datu and Sandakan.