TUARAN: Continuous hot weather and a drought which have been occurring since the past two months have affected water supply in the long list of villages in this district.
Tuaran District Officer Mohd Sofian Alfian Nair said there were complaints from residents in 18 villages about the problem. Among them are Kampung Kapa, Minangkob, Bawang, Dopu, Ruhiang, Logkou Baru, Kelawatdan Bongol, Kampung Simpangan Lama, Koporingan, Ponopuan and other villages.
“Today, clean water supply was channelled to three villages; Kampung Kapa, Kampung Minangkob and Kampung Bawang.
"The water supply to the other villages will be channelled according to schedule, and these residents will receive their supply twice a week during this drought,” he told Harian Metro.
Sofian said the Tuaran District Civil Defence Force, which functions as the District Disaster Secretariat, has reported that those affected villages were now utilising gravity water pipes.
“The weather forecasts until this month have indicated that the surface temperature at the equator will exceed the average (surface temperature) along the Pacific Ocean.
“There is 50 per cent likeliness that this ‘weak’ El-Nino is expected to persist until June,” he said.
Sofian said as of this afternoon, two lorries ferrying 18,180 litres of treated water from the Tuaran Water Department have been distributed to three villages.
“If this drought continues and there is no rain in several days’ time, many more villages are expected to face water supply woes,” he said.
On March 13, the Tuaran District Council declared that it was experiencing a drought following continuous hot weather and absence of rain for the past two months.