SWERGAGE SYSTEM IN KUCHING

There was an ecological sanitation pilot project at Hui Sing Garden, Kuching, some years ago. This pilot project was supposed to pave the way for a better sanitation and sewerage system in Kuching City, but, the project has failed. The government in this failed project had spent huge sums of money by calling companies and experts from Norway and Denmark to study and implement the pilot project. Now, the government had left those who participated in this project on their own to take care of the problems that they currently are facing. They could not flush their toilets now as dirty water would gush out of the toilet bowls. Their toilet bowls had been leaking for years now as they could not find spare parts to repair their toilets. They are forced to pay heft water bills because of the leakage of their toilet bowls. Two state ministers who are still here and two mayors who are no more mayors were said had inspected these sanitation project and was aware of the problems faced by the residents affected, but, nothing had been done to solve their problems. The government took a simple and irresponsible way out to solve the problem by just issuing a letter date 22 July, 2008 by telling the residents affected that the government was terminating the project and told them that, “the State Government has gained considerable experiences and knowledge on functionality and performance of the system.”

However, although the State Government said it had gained experiences and knowledge of the functionality and performance of the system, the State Government had failed to learn a lesson from the failed sanitation pilot project at Hui Sing Garden in Kuching by going ahead in full swing the implementation of the sewerage system currently under construction in KUching City without experiments being conducted to determine its effectiveness before full implementation. We agree that a detailed study has been made before implementation, but, what would happen if the system would be broken down and there would not be spare-parts available later on? Who would shoulder the loss and damages incurred by the residents of the affected areas? It is said the contract for the current Kuching City Central Wastewater Management System Package I scheduled for completion in October, 2012 at a cost of about RM530 million with inflated cost of RM78 million involves a company which is said has no experience at all in undertaking such a huge sanitation project. This project has now makes every Sarawakian to foot the extra cost of RM400.