PAPAR: Three water treatment plants (WTPs) in Papar district are now operating and are currently capable of producing 58 million litres per day (MLD) of treated water starting at 10 last night, said Papar Member of Parliament Datuk Armizan Mohd Ali (pix).
He said the Kgopon and Jetama WTP are now able to operate at full capacity of 40 mld and 13 mld respectively, while the Limbahau Emergency Waste Water Supply Scheme (EWSS) WTP is able to operate at half the capacity of 5 mld.
“There is a slight issue with the level of turbidity of the water source because there is a flood at the upstream of the river and the rush of turbid water to the river which is a source of raw water for the treatment plants.
“There are times when the processing will have to be reduced slightly due to this water turbidity issue, however the production of treated water in the three LRAs is going smoothly,“ said the Minister of Domestic Trade and Cost of Living in a statement today.
Previously, Papar district faced a shortage of 15 million litres per day of treated water supply due to WTP EWSS Limbahau with a capacity of 10 mld not being able to operate fully while WTP Jetama was also only able to operate at half capacity which is 5 mld, due to the high level of salinity of the water source.
WTP EWSS Limbahau was only able to operate again yesterday after being closed on February 17 when the salinity level of the water source in the Sauk exceeded 120 mg/l the standard level to be processed into treated water.
On March 13, the Papar District Disaster Management Committee in a statement declared Papar, located about 38 kilometres from Kota Kinabalu, as a drought disaster area following the water supply crisis at a critical level due to the hot weather hitting the area.
