Shell station, near Kemuyang junction).
SIBU: Approximately about 7,000 households were affected due to the 450 Mild Steel Cement Lined (MSCL) pipe burst on Thursday at Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman (opposite Shell station, near Kemuyang junction) in Sibu.
Deputy general manager of Sibu Water Board (SWB) Lau Pon Yin told reporters that the areas affected were Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman (from Petronas to Kemuyang Bypass), Mile 13, Jalan Oya up to Sibintek, Sibu Jaya inlcuding Sibu Airport and Durin Link.
“This pipe burst actually has caused the interruption of water supply whereby some started experiencing the interruption of water on Thursday morning. I was told that some people had already noticed the water pressure reducing at 6am on Thursday. “Our official closing of the valve was only done at 1.40pm on Thursday. This was actually in terms of preparation.
Normally, we are closing once we are ready for that. So this is our exact time, which is at 1.40pm; we close our valve… meaning that would isolate the leaking point from our distribution system. Now this of course allowed the continuation of supply from Sibu Water Board through all our Oya road line, which is relative smaller pipe.
“Of course when it comes to airport area, Sibu Jaya area, with the smaller pipe receiving (bigger pipe is not possible to have good pressure obviously) only those staying at the lower ground will get some water, and for those staying at higher ground, they could not get any water. Anyway water tankers are deployed to deliver water to affected areas,” he explained. He told this to reporters when inspecting the repairing work at the site of the pipe burst yesterday.
The cause of the failure, he said was because the contractor did not do earth filling work over pipe without doing any preparation. “So this is an excessive loading on the pipe , which caused our pipe to break vertically. So this breakage happened at the bottom of the pipe.
And that makes our repair relatively much more difficult because of the location of the crack at the bottom and also this area is actually having very much high water table.
“Yesterday (Thursday) it was raining and we were also having difficulty because of earth collapsed at repair point due to rain. The excavator was having difficulty to get close enough to repair point. Any inconvenience caused is deeply regretted,” he said. He stressed that SWB will strive to complete the work and resume the water supply as soon as possible.
