KOTA KINABALU: The State Water Department (JANS) has been instructed to form a special task force to deal decisively with the water disruption problems in Sepanggar and Manggatal.
Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor also ordered the team to find short-term and long-term solutions following the critical water problems faced by residents.
"The focus now is to look for an immediate or short-term way to resolve the critical water issues faced by the residents in the Sepanggar area.
"This special task force will also be involved in the management of both Tuaran and Kota Kinabalu districts," he said in a statement, today.
According to a local daily, residents from Tuaran to Manggatal were forced to buy mineral water for daily use due to a water supply shortage since Friday.
The water disruptions also saw business premises being closed, with most shops running out of bottled mineral water.
It was also reported that residential and business communities had expressed their frustration over the water supply problem by placing protest banners at shop lots and houses.
Stressing the state government is paying its full attention to the problem, Hajiji noted he himself had received complaints about the water supply problem from residents in the Sepanggar area.
"The state government takes this matter seriously and the solution needs to be expedited. Because of that, I have instructed JANS to immediately set up a special task force to address issues in areas facing critical water problems," he said.
On April 9, JANS issued a notice that the Telibong water treatment plant had been shut down temporarily due to high level turbidity of river water.
State Works Minister Datuk Seri Bung Moktar Radin had said the main cause was a power outage on April 6, which resulted in the plant not being able to fully function for three hours to supply clean water to affected areas.
He had also said JANS was sending clean water supply by trucks as an immediate solution, noting the long-term solution would be the construction of the Telibong Water Treatment Plant 2 which is expected to be completed in 2023.