Dato Sri Dr Stephen Rundi Utom

SIBU: The state government has identified 58 water catchment areas proposed to be gazetted within two years."

Minister of Rural Electricity and Water Supply Dato Sri Dr Stephen Rundi said based on the short-term planning (until 2020), the 58 areas would be gazetted by end of 2018.

“To date, 29 water catchment areas with a total area of about 4,079,535ha have been gazetted.

“In addition, the gazettement of water catchment areas will be compiled with the Water Ordinance 1994 and the Auditor-General ‘s (AG) Report 2016,” he said when contacted on Tuesday.

Dr Rundi was responding to The Borneo Post article on Tuesday entitled ‘Gazette all water catchment areas as soon as possible’, which was one of recommendations for Sarawak in the Auditor-General’s (AG) Report 2016 for water authorities in the state to gazette all water catchment areas as soon as possible to prevent prohibited activities from jeopardising water quality.

He said in the medium-term planning (2021-2025) and long-term planning (beyond 2025), the state government would focus on the proposed new water catchment areas to be gazetted.

The report also mentioned that the capacity of Batu Kitang Water Treatment Plant would not be able to meet the clean water demand for Kuching and parts of Samarahan by 2020.

Dr Rundi described this as incorrect as Kuching Water Board had increased the capacity of the upgraded Plant 3 from 200 million litres daily (MLD) to 400 MLD, adding that the upgrading works was practically completed.

“Therefore, by 2020, the capacity of the water treatment plant will be 763 MLD with an average water demand of 653 MLD,” he added.

He said despite having sufficient capacity up to 2020, KWB has taken step to appoint a consultant to review their water supply master plan and to expand their water production capacity in line with the expected increase in demand from Kuching City and greater Kuching in the future.