ALOR STAR: Kedah Umno poured scorn on the plan to develop underground water catchments in Langkawi as an alternative water resources for the resort island to meet increasing demand, particularly during the dry spell.
Its information chief Datuk Shaiful Hazizy Zainol Abidin argued on the potential risk of the plan based on the alleged poor maintenance record on water assets in Kedah by the Perikatan Nasional state government.
"First, is the issue of sink holes. Secondly, the quality of underground water may already be eroded by pesticides absorption.
"Who will bear the consequences, the people of Kedah?" he said in a statement today.
Shaiful, who is also Merbok Umno division chief, said the plan was high-risk due to the poor maintenance on water assets by the current state government.
"Even simpler maintenance such as on the underground pipes is not being carried out, what's more building a water catchment (underground).
"It may be a good project, but if it is implemented by the wrong hands like the current Kedah state government, we are worried it might not be completed, the money will be gone and that if the project is somehow materialised, it will not be properly maintained."
Shaiful also hit out at the state government for depending on federal government funding for the proposed project without any plans to find its own.
For the record, in January 2020, then prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad announced that the government was exploring underground water catchments as alternative water resources for Langkawi.
Dr Mahathir, who was also Langkawi member of parliament, said the underground water catchments aimed to cope with unusual dry spells and increased demand up to 2040.
He was reported as saying that the Water, Land and Natural Resources Ministry would be working towards extracting the underground water resources.
On Wednesday, the state Public Works, Natural Resources, Water Supply and Environmental Committee chairman Mohamad Yusoff @ Munir Zakaria informed the state assembly that the proposed underground water catchments in Langkawi would not cause a sink hole like in Indonesia's capital, Jakarta.
He was said the National Water Research Institute of Malaysia carries out a study and takes into account all relevant factors before an area is earmarked for such a project.
Munir had said the study is being carried out in Kedah and the pilot project for the underground water catchments in Padang Mat Sirat, Langkawi which costs RM453 million with production capacity of 50 million cubic litre water will begin by 2028.