SIBU: A person receiving more than one water tanks due to overlapping applications is among issues raised during ‘1Malaysia Water Tank Supply Project’ briefing yesterday.
Overlapping applications happened due to poor coordination between the agencies involved like Resident and district offices as well as elected representatives’ service centres.
Director of the Ministry of Rural and Regional Development, Jasni Jubli, who chaired the briefing, said at least one recipient received five water tanks.
The briefing was conducted by the ministry, State Federal Development Office and the Ministry of Rural Development at Sibu Municipal Council (SMC) conference room here.
Assistant Minister of Land Development Datuk Gramong Juna and Assistant Minister of Native Adat and Penan Affairs Datuk John Sikie Tayai also attended the briefing.
A representative from the Ministry of Rural Development, Sirai Daha, said he found the distribution of the water tanks not reaching the target group.
He said this happened because the district offices involved tried too hard to fill up the quota of recipients given to them.
“The quota means they had to find the recipients regardless of their eligibility for the assistance.
“I have gone to many places in the state and found the water tanks placed in fruit orchards while some were sold because the recipients were ‘forced’ to accept the water tanks although they were not eligible,” he said.
Citing Sarikei, Sirai said the water tanks were distributed to a village supplied with treated water by Public Works Department while another village where river and well water was not safe for consumption were not given the assistance.
He also said the water tanks were not much needed in rural areas like Kapit where the people received water supply through gravity feed system.
“What they need the most is water filtration system to filter water from the gravity feed system so that it is safe for consumption,” he said.
On this matter, Jasni advised district offices and service centres of elected representatives to coordinate their work to resolve overlapping applications.
He also said in the future the name of the recipients would be screened for the same purpose.
Jasni said a total of 13,217 1Malaysia Water Tanks would be distributed this year to six divisions, namely Sri Aman, Betong, Sarikei, Sibu, Mukah and Kapit.
Nine contractors had been appointed to deliver the water tanks including the components such as PVC pipe, bend PVC, elbow PVC, water tap, and gutter PVC, he said.
Meanwhile, a total of 81,172 tanks have been distributed state-wide from 2012 until last year involving a contract cost of RM197.32 million.
- Borneo Post
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