KOTA KINABALU: The heavy rainfall that drenched the city and surrounding areas and cooling it down yesterday did nothing to calm irate consumers when electricity supply was abruptly disrupted several times during the day.
Most consumers in the west coast of Sabah had looked forward to the rain after weeks of hot dry weather that had turned grass brown and left plants withered but they had not counted on Sabah’s perennial problem – the lack of steady power supply – making a return with a vengeance.
They had a rude shock when a series of blackouts, four in all, brought life to a standstill in a span of six hours yesterday.
The man in the line of fire is Datuk Seri Panglima Maximus Ongkili, the Minister of Energy, Green Technology and Water. The four-in-a-row power interruption is sufficient justification they feel to call for his head.
“The Federal Minister of Energy, Green Technology and Water, who is from Sabah, should know the situation better and do the utmost within his powers to find a solution to the problems faced by his fellow Sabahans,”said former Sabah Deputy Chief Minister Tham Nyip Shen yesterday.
Tham pointed out that whenever there was a blackout, it reflected poorly on the Barisan Nasional government, since its leaders continued to assure the people that there would be less power interruptions, but each time one happened it only exposed their assurances to be a lie.
“Today’s four blackouts in six hours (also) did not reflect that assurance. At private medical clinics where there is no power back-up, it is a matter of life and death,” Tham said yesterday.
The former deputy chief minister disclosed that he was in the alarming position of being in a dentist chair when the power shutdown occurred. He said the dentist was in the middle of a procedure when the power failed.
“You just cannot imagine the suffering. The dentist told me that today was not the first time,”he added.
According to Tham, his dentist informed him that earlier a patient was in the midst of having his tooth repaired when the current went off. The procedure had to be completed with the help of a torchlight.
Tham said that while government hospitals might not be affected as they have back-up generators, it should not be an excuse for the power utility company to slack in its duty of ensuring uninterrupted power supply to consumers.
He said commercial centres depend on power supply to function efficiently and blackouts meant less business for them. He hoped the government would urgently address the problem.
While a blackout occurring once in a while might be acceptable, four within six hours in a day is too much a problem for the people, he said.
Most of those hit were in Kota Kinabalu and the towns around the city. Businesses were hit along with operations at private clinics, bakeries and other production outlets.
Angry consumers flooded the Sabah Electricity Sabah Berhad (SESB) hotlines demanding an explanation.