KOTA KINABALU: The water supply from 58 processing plants throughout Sabah which were taken over by the state Water Department (JANS) from private concessionaires is clean and safe for consumption.
This was guaranteed by Infrastructure Development minister Datuk Peter Anthony, in replying to a claim by certain parties on social media over the quality of water from the plants.
He said the claim that insufficient supply of chlorine to treat the water in all water processing plants was the cause of its quality deterioration and made it unsafe for consumption was not true.
“I would like to state that our water, not only in 58 JANS-acquired plants, but all plants in the state is in good condition and safe to drink. The claim by irresponsible parties who said there was no chlorine in the plant is not true at all.
“We have sufficient chlorine supply. The water is clean and safe for consumption,” he said in a press conference over the sabotage claim after JANS took over all 58 plants yesterday.
Anthony said his agency detected sabotage when 94 workers in Segaliud and 39 in Maliau did not turn up to handle the plants yesterday.
Anthony said besides the absence of workers at Segaliud and Maliau, assets and equipment used to maintain the plants, including chlorine and tools, were also found to have been removed.
However, he said JANS already handled the issue and replaced the workers to ensure the supply from both plants weren’t affected.
He also said that from the 58 plants acquired, 56 supported the state government’s takeover by ensuring that all 1,335 workers were present as usual to operate the plants.
Regarding the contract workers at the plants, Anthony said they would be absorbed as JANS staff with their salaries retained, if not increased based on recommendation by JANS director.