Julaihi: Sarawak mulls higher penalties for damaging water supply system

KUCHING (Nov 18): The Ministry of Utility and Telecommunication is considering amending relevant sections under the Water Ordinance, 1994 to impose higher penalties and appropriate punishments to negligent parties who caused damage to Sarawak’s water supply system.

Minister Dato Sri Julaihi Narawi said at the moment, the penalty imposed in Sarawak is low when compared to other states in the country.

“In Sarawak, the penalty imposed for the first offence is RM5,000 and this excludes the cost of repair to the damage.

“When compared to Peninsular Malaysia and Sabah, the penalties do not exceed RM50,000. Even in Singapore, the penalty is higher compared to Malaysia where they do not exceed S$40,000,” he said when winding up his ministerial winding-up speech at the State Legislative Assembly (DUN) Sitting here.

He told the august House that recently, the state has often experienced water supply disruptions caused by the negligence of third parties including contractors while they were carrying out construction works.

“In addition, damage to our distribution pipes was also caused by the negligence of other parties such as traffic accidents and vandalism.”

He pointed out that damages to pipelines often take a long time to repair and this in turn would affect water supply services.

“This also makes it difficult for consumers to carry out their daily activities and gives a bad image to water supply agencies.

“The damages also cause water supply agencies to have to endure difficulties in detecting damage and repairing damaged pipes. The relevant water supply agencies also suffer losses in terms of loss of Non-Revenue Water (NRW),” he said.

Julaihi also touched on cases of vandalism to utility infrastructure facilities in the state, where a total of 1,655 cases have been recorded from January to October this year.

“The vandalism cases involved damage to utility infrastructure facilities such as electricity, water and telecommunication with an estimated loss of RM5.4 million.

“This crime of vandalism has affected utility and telecommunications services and caused inconvenience to the public,” he said.

He said to address this issue, the Ministry of Utility and Telecommunication has established an Anti-Vandalism Committee involving utility and telecommunications agencies such as Sarawak Energy, Rural Water Supply Department (JBALB), Kuching Water Board, Sibu Water Board, Northern Sarawak Water Board (Laku), Sarawak Digital Economy Corporation (SDEC),  and Petroleum Sarawak Berhad (Petros) in collaboration with the State Attorney-General (SAG), Sarawak Multimedia Authority (SMA), Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), Royal Malaysia Police (PDRM), Sarawak Security and Enforcement Unit (UKPS) and relevant telecommunication service providers.

“The roles of this committee include examining proposed amendments to the law, if necessary; enforcement actions; awareness campaigns; security of utility assets; and other initiatives to combat vandalism activities from time to time.

“Our Premier also launched the Sarawak-level Anti-Vandalism Prevention Campaign in Kuching in July this year and this was followed by the Divisional Anti-Vandalism Prevention Campaign in Bintulu on Oct 29. This campaign will continue in all divisions in Sarawak to raise public awareness on crime and the effects of vandalism,” he said.

He added that four integrated ‘Ops Lusuh’ operations led by the PDRM were also carried out with utility agencies, MCMC and telecommunications companies throughout Sarawak this year.

Later at a press conference, Julaihi said his ministry is currently studying the Water Ordinance, 1994 including the penalty that should be imposed so as to prevent the occurrence of damages in the future.

“We will also look into reviewing penalties for other the other utility facilities under electricity and telecommunication because damages occur on these utilities as well.

“I am requesting that all the relevant agencies carry out a thorough study on the penalties because they cannot be lower than what is being penalised in elsewhere.

“If others are charging that amount, I think that should also be equally imposed in Sarawak,” he said.