SIBU: The Sibu Water Board (SWB) is currently implementing a 20-million-litre per day (MLD) direct river water intake at Sungai Maaw for the Tanjung Manis Water Supply System.
According to a statement by Utilities and Telecommunications Minister Datuk Julaihi Narawi on Monday (Feb 28), the project was implemented to resolve the raw water quality for the Tanjung Manis Water Supply System Phase 1 project.
He disclosed that the project had been awarded to Hock Seng Lee Bhd at the contract price of RM16.8mil through open tender.
“Originally, the construction work commenced on July 1, 2020 and is expected to be completed on June 30, 2021.
“However due to the Covid-19 pandemic and manpower shortage (foreign workers) arising from the pandemic, the construction progress of the new 20 MLD direct river water intake was adversely affected resulting in delays.
“To date, the tidal harvesting storage pond has been completed on schedule. However, the structural works for intake structure, weir structure, and sedimentation tank are delayed due to manpower shortage.
“The overall physical progress is now at 70.43 per cent completion. With the implementation of the catch up plan, the contractor had committed to complete the project by June 30, 2022.”
Julaihi disclosed that for the new 20 MLD direct river water intake, a tidal harvesting scheme was chosen over a conventional raw water intake, due to the tidal nature of the Batang Rajang and availability of a large tract of unencumbered land.
“During high tide, the raw water from Batang Rajang will overflow a reinforced concrete weir to fill the 65 million litre (ML) storage pond.
“This storage pond has sufficient capacity for one day’s abstraction, even during periods of low tide. This cycle of filling the storage pond will be repeated daily during periods of high tide.”
He further explained that at the end of the 65ML storage pond was a raw water intake structure with a capacity of 20MLD.
He stated that the capacity of this raw water intake could be increased to 65MLD in the future when necessary following the increase of the water demand in Tanjung Manis.
“During operation of the new 20MLD intake, raw water will be pumped from the storage pond to the proposed new pre-sedimentation tank, from where the raw water will gravitate to the holding tank at the existing booster pumping station, which is located adjacent to this new intake.
“From the holding tank, the raw water will be pumped to the Tanjung Manis water treatment plant for treatment before distribution for domestic and industrial usages.”
Noting that the present source of treated water at Tanjung Manis and its surrounding areas is from Bayong Water Treatment Plant operated by Rural Water Supply Department (JBALB) Sarikei, he said that the current demand was around 8.4MLD.
“Once the Tanjung Manis Water Supply is in operation, the treated water supply from JBALB Sarikei to Tanjung Manis will be stopped, and water supply to Tanjung Manis will be fed from the new treatment plant at Tanjung Manis.
“With the targeted completion set, Tanjung Manis Water Supply is expected to start its operation around the end of Dec this year.”
