Floating solar facility to be built at Batang Ai hydro dam reservoir – CM

Abang Johari (seated, centre) with Masing (seated, second left), Jaul (seated, second right) and Mussen (seated left).

SRI AMAN (March 30): A floating solar facility will be built at the Batang Ai hydro dam reservoir to supply power to the main grid in the effort to electrify the surrounding areas, said Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg.

“The floating solar facility – a new technology – at Batang Ai hydro dam will be the first of its kind,” he said in his speech at the Lubok Antu sports complex in conjunction with his official visit to Batang Ai, Lubok Antu.

In December 2019, Sarawak Energy Berhad chief executive officer Datu Sharbini Suhaili said a feasibility study conducted on the proposed facility concluded that it could generate 30 to 50 megawatts of power to the main grid and its execution would start this year.

Meanwhile, Abang Johari said there is a need to intensify security in Lubok Antu.

He said in order to assist the relevant agencies like the police and army in maintaining security there, the 7.5 kilometres (KM) road from town to the Lubok Antu Immigration, Customs and Quarantine (ICQ) complex will be lighted up and the police will be equipped with drones.

Abang Johari acknowledged the international boundary between Nanga Badau (West Kalimantan) and Lubok Antu (Sarawak) is very porous and has contributed to the influx of illegal immigrants.

“There is a chance that illegal immigrants were one of the sources of Covid-19 infection spread in Sarawak of late,” he lamented.

Unlike migrants who are using the legal entry points to enter the state, he said illegal immigrants do not undergo the strict requirements of PCR testing and quarantine.

On another note, Abang Johari said the data gathered on the inland port trade and overall economic activities in Lubok Antu will be included in the state’s post Covid-19 pandemic economic exit policy.

Among the VIPs present were Minister of Infrastructure and Port Development Tan Sri Dr James Jemut Masing, State Secretary Datuk Amar Jaul Samion and Assistant Minister of International Trade and Industry, Industry Terminal and Entrepreneur Development Datuk Malcolm Mussen Lamoh who is also Batang Ai assemblyman.

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