Julaihi, flanked by Liwan and Dr Abdul Rahman (right), speaks to the press during his visit to the Batu Kitang water treatment plant.
KUCHING (Feb 13): The overall water treatment capacity of the Batu Kitang water treatment plant will be increased to 984 million litres per day (MLD), said Utility and Telecommunication Minister Datuk Julaihi Narawi.
Without providing a timeline, he said the increase from the current capacity of 780 MLD is to cater to the increasing consumption in Kuching and the neighbouring districts.
“Currently, the plant is producing 704 MLD to cater to the demand of Kuching city with a population of about 950,000.
“However, the plant which is operated by Kuching Water Board is also supplying water to Bau and Samarahan via the Rural Water Supply Department (JBALB),” he told reporters after inspecting Plant 2 of the Batu Kitang water treatment plant yesterday.
Julaihi pointed out about 16 per cent of the treated water production under KWB is supplied to JBALB, and the existing water treatment reserve margin of KWB stands at 4.5 per cent.
Aside from the increasing water demand from a growing population, Julaihi said industrial parks such as Samajaya Free Industrial Park are heavy consumers of water.
“Samajaya Free Industrial Park is the largest water consumer in Kuching with a demand of 22 MLD and the expansion activities of electronic industries located there will result in an additional demand of 21 MLD by the end of this year.
“KWB has also said the water demand from JBALB has increased from 100 MLD to 120 MLD over the past year, and it is expected to further increase to 186 MLD by 2025,” he said.
Thus, Julaihi said upgrading works are currently carried out at Plant 2 of the Batu Kitang water treatment plant to provide an additional 104 MLD by the end of this year.
There is also a plan to upgrade Plant 4 at the same treatment plant soon to produce an additional 100 MLD of treated water and push the reserve margin to 11 per cent, he added.
“We also need to consider the water demand from Samarahan. The water grid system at Samaharan is already fully completed and it is now only waiting for the supply of water from the Batu Kitang plant.”
Furthermore, Julaihi explained there is a lack of big water treatment plants specifically to cater to the needs of residents in Asajaya, Simunjan, Sebuyau and Samarahan.
With that said, he said his ministry is now looking for a site in Landeh to construct a new water treatment plant, known as Plant 5, to meet the increasing demand.
“The initial cost of construction is about RM1.6 billion to produce 400 MLD of treated water. Construction will take about three years to complete and the plant will ultimately be upgraded to produce 800 MLD.
“The construction of the Landeh water treatment plant has yet to commence but it is in the pipeline. The final capacity will be 800 MLD and we first have to identify which land to acquire, as well as assessing the pipeline alignment,” he said.
Among those accompanying Julaihi yesterday were his deputy ministers Datuk Liwan Lagang and Datuk Dr Abdul Rahman Junaidi, and KWB chairman Dato Sri Dr Wan Lizozman Wan Omar.
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