Bahrin
TAWAU: The shortage of water supply will be a thing of the past for residents in Tawau once a dam to be built on a 679-acre site at Gudang Empat here is completed in 2016.
Disclosing this during a briefing for Deputy Education Minister Datuk Mary Yap Kain Ching, District Water Department engineer Bahrin Bin Antonio @ Haji Anwar said the dam has a storage capacity of 30 million litres.
“Residents here will no longer have to worry about floods once the dam is built,” he added.
He said work on the dam, costing about RM200 million, was expected to begin early next year and will take about three years to complete if there are no obstacles.
“Its design is now in the final stage and is expected to cost around RM20 million. A tender is expected to be called for at the end of this year,” he told reporters after the briefing session with the Tawau MP Datuk Mary Yap Kain Ching, who is also the Deputy Education Minister, at Tawau Water Department here yesterday morning.
“The demand for water supply in the district here is about 140 million litres daily and we believe after the completion of the dam there would sufficient water supply for the Tawau community here, but there is still a need to store water especially during the dry season which may last up to six months.
“In fact, the dam is able to store a huge capacity of water while at the same time prevent floods from occurring at Pasir Puteh during the rainy season as water would not spill over from the dam,” Bahrin pointed out.
Touching on the replacement of old pipes in the township here, he said the Water Department was in the process of getting more funds from the government for the respective development projects.
He said it is undeniable that all the water pipes in the township are 20 to 30 years old and needed to be replaced with new pipes.
However, Bahrin said, it is very critical as huge funds are needed to replace the old pipes at the Sabindo area, old township and Fajar here.