KOTA KINABALU: Sabahans across the state who have been waiting for over 50 years for clean treated water supply are now crying foul at the authorities for charging them exorbitant fees just to connect to the main pipe.
They claimed they are being fleeced by plumbing contractors appointed by Sabah Water Department.
These contractors are charging anything between RM550 to RM800 per house or per connection.
And this fee does not include costs of buying the pipe to connect from the mains to their respective houses.
Affected consumers in Kota Belud bitterly argued that the state or federal government should pay the connection fee as the end-users would eventually be paying for monthly water bills.
“This should be free for Sabah as we waited for more than half a century for this very basic human need for clean water made available to us.
“What is Shafie Apdal (Minister of Regional and Rural Development) doing with his ministry’s annual RM7 billion development fund?” asked an angry Shariz Fairuz, 26, from Kota Belud.
He said Shafie’s ministry should shift its focus to help lessen the burden and compensate Sabahans for being shortchanged by the federal government all these decades.
“It seems the federal authorities are collecting every single sen from Sabahans every day.
“Just look at the costly police traffic summons, the JPJ summons, it is everyday they collect from the ordinary people while those in high places loot our public treasury, what is this?” he lamented to FMT recently.
Govts like “hungry dracula”
Another consumer who only wanted to be known as Jefrison, said it is too much for the government to ask such huge bill from first time clients in Sabah to connect to the water supply, when in other areas of the country the government had subsidised water connection.
“By right, the Federal and Sabah governments must compensate Sabahans for being so slow and late in giving us treated water.
“They are 50 years late and still want to make some fast money from the victims. No shame at all.
“It is unacceptable, and to me this is a crime against humanity on Sabahans. First they denied us our clean water needs for 50 years and now they want to charge us exorbitant fee to connect.
“Why don’t use public money to compensate us for this job?” asked furious Jefrison.
Another consumer who refused to be identified likened the governments to a “dracula” who keeps on bleeding its helpless victims.
“Like a hungry dracula, this government does not have shame at all, still wanting to charge us for a thing we should have had in the very first years of our independence in 1963,” he pointed out.
For the past three years, the government has been laying water pipes in many corners of Sabah. Recently many parts of the vast state have started to see real clean water reaching the kampungs.
However thousands more kampungs in Sabah still do not have basic infrastructure and clean water.
FMT Borneo Plus
They claimed they are being fleeced by plumbing contractors appointed by Sabah Water Department.
These contractors are charging anything between RM550 to RM800 per house or per connection.
And this fee does not include costs of buying the pipe to connect from the mains to their respective houses.
Affected consumers in Kota Belud bitterly argued that the state or federal government should pay the connection fee as the end-users would eventually be paying for monthly water bills.
“This should be free for Sabah as we waited for more than half a century for this very basic human need for clean water made available to us.
“What is Shafie Apdal (Minister of Regional and Rural Development) doing with his ministry’s annual RM7 billion development fund?” asked an angry Shariz Fairuz, 26, from Kota Belud.
He said Shafie’s ministry should shift its focus to help lessen the burden and compensate Sabahans for being shortchanged by the federal government all these decades.
“It seems the federal authorities are collecting every single sen from Sabahans every day.
“Just look at the costly police traffic summons, the JPJ summons, it is everyday they collect from the ordinary people while those in high places loot our public treasury, what is this?” he lamented to FMT recently.
Govts like “hungry dracula”
Another consumer who only wanted to be known as Jefrison, said it is too much for the government to ask such huge bill from first time clients in Sabah to connect to the water supply, when in other areas of the country the government had subsidised water connection.
“By right, the Federal and Sabah governments must compensate Sabahans for being so slow and late in giving us treated water.
“They are 50 years late and still want to make some fast money from the victims. No shame at all.
“It is unacceptable, and to me this is a crime against humanity on Sabahans. First they denied us our clean water needs for 50 years and now they want to charge us exorbitant fee to connect.
“Why don’t use public money to compensate us for this job?” asked furious Jefrison.
Another consumer who refused to be identified likened the governments to a “dracula” who keeps on bleeding its helpless victims.
“Like a hungry dracula, this government does not have shame at all, still wanting to charge us for a thing we should have had in the very first years of our independence in 1963,” he pointed out.
For the past three years, the government has been laying water pipes in many corners of Sabah. Recently many parts of the vast state have started to see real clean water reaching the kampungs.
However thousands more kampungs in Sabah still do not have basic infrastructure and clean water.
FMT Borneo Plus
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