WORK to improve the raw water intake at the Sungai Asap water treatment plant will be carried out in 2023.
According to Deputy Minister for Utility and Telecommunication, Datuk Dr Abdul Rahman Junaidi, the improvement work was a short-term planning to ensure that the function of the raw water intake is not affected during the flood season.
“Besides that, the work to improve the existing plant will also be carried out in order to increase water production during the dry season.”
Dr Abdul Rahman said that the source of raw water for the Sungai Asap Water Treatment Plant is Sungai Koyan.
“During the dry season, this plant has difficulty treating the river water due to sudden changes in the quality of the raw water. This situation causes the plant’s ability to treat water to be limited and water production in the plant decreases by 20 per cent to 40 per cent.
“During the flood season, the raw water intake could not fully functional due to the high water level and the rapid flow of river water, which causes the function of the raw water intake to be affected and maintenance work must be carried out after the flood.”
Dr Abdul Rahman said this when responding to Murum assemblyman Kennedy Chukpai Ugon’s questions during the fourth day of the 19th Sarawak Legislative Assembly (DUN) sitting on Thursday (Nov 24).
He also said that scope of work for the raw water intake improvement project in Sungai Koyan included improving the existing structure to ensure continuous water pumping operations during the flood season.
“Apart from that, replacement for the water filtration system will be made to ensure sufficient supply of treated water during the dry season. The estimated cost of this short-term project is RM1.5mil.”
Meanwhile, for long-term planning, the Proposed Upgrading of Existing Sungai Asap Water Treatment Plant and other Facilities project has been submitted for implementation under the 12th Malaysia Plan (12MP) to ensure that the problem of water supply disruptions can be resolved.
“Among the scope of work that will be carried out for this project are works to increase the water capacity from 5 million liters per day to 10 million liters per day as well as new construction of raw water intake and the project is estimated at RM16.7mil.”
