With the objective to provide better service to the people, numerous projects were proposed to be implemented within the period of five years under the 12th Malaysian Plan (RMK-12).
During a recent interview with RAKAN Sarawak, the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Utilities, YBhg. Dato Ir. Alice Jawan Empaling said that among the high impact projects planned under RMK-12 is to explore the possibility of ensuring the capacity of the water plants throughout Sarawak meet the need and demand of the people.
This includes the expansion of the Salim water treatment plant in Sibu as well as the Batu Kitang water plant.
Adding more, she said that the expansion plant for both water plants is important because they cover both Sibu division and Kuching division respectively.
Aside from that, both Sarawak Alternative Rural Water Supply (SAWAS) and Sarawak Alternative Rural Electrification Scheme (SARES) program will be carried out to ensure extended service throughout the State.
includes the Sarawak Alternative Rural Water Supply (SAWAS)
is one of the main initiatives to widen the water supply
coverage in the rural areas in Sarawak.
Adding more, there will also be numerous projects be implemented under the Projek Rakyat initiative as this will be most beneficial to the rural communities.
For water supply, in 2017 the ministry and its agencies has identified the stressed areas that needs to be resolved first under Projek Rakyat.
Started in 2018 the Projek Rakyat took three years to complete.
However, due to the implementation of Movement Control Order (MCO) last year, some of the projects that were unable to complete last year will be completed this year.
When asked what is the most significant change seen on Sarawak utilities over the past three years, Dato Ir. Alice said that Sarawak has prepared a well-defined plan to broaden the overall utilities coverage throughout the State.
Noting that while they have always kept track on how much electric and water coverage in the State, she added that they did not give much thoughts about what needs to be done to lessen the coverage gap.
To resolve the utilities issues in Sarawak, Dato Ir. Alice said that one of the things that they did was conducting a study on water supply to identify what are the major issues which includes poorly maintained water plants.
She added in 2018, the State Government has allocated about RM2.8 billion for Projek Rakyat to resolve the water issues throughout Sarawak.
“For me, that was the biggest achievement and the most significant changes in this ministry,” she said.
As of now, the overall coverage for water and electric in Sarawak stands at 83.4 per cent (65.5 per cent for rural and 99 per cent for urban area) and 98 per cent (95 per cent for rural and 100 per cent for urban area) respectively.
By 2025, Sarawak is committed to achieve 100 per cent coverage for quality, affordable and sustainable utilities in the State.
Below are the highlights of the significant changes in the development of Sarawak utilities over the last three years.
| No | Type of Utilities | Significant changes under the Ministry of Utilities |
| 1 | Electric | ▪ SARES and Additional or Late Applicant Fund (ALAF), apart from Rural Power Supply Scheme (RPSS), Rural Electrification Scheme (RES) and stand-alone hybrid system – increase supply coverage for rural from 88% to 95% in 2020 ▪ Increase in Power generation capacity – New Baligian coal fired power plant – 624MW – Tanjung Kidurong combine cycle – 842MW Total generation capacity – 5,200MW Peak demand 2020 – 3,664 MW ▪ Transmission line second backbone 500kV ▪ CCGFA – discount up to 70 per cent for connection charges above RM5,000.00 up to RM10,000.00, free for below RM5,000.00 ▪ Increase of competent person – by 39.38 % from 2017-2020 ▪ Implementation of smart meter at Kuching area -pilot project at Darul Hana housing area ▪ Ongoing construction of 1285MW Baleh HEP to increase generation capacity ▪ Bantuan Khas Sarawakku Sayang (BKSS) to reduce the burden of the people during Covid-19 pandemic |
| 2 | Water | ▪ Sarawak Water Supply Grid Masterplan – short, medium, long term plan ▪ Projek Rakyat which includes SAWAS ▪ Smart metering – pilot project at Samarahan area. ▪ JBALB command centre ▪ WTPs installed with Scada system ▪ Signing of memorandum of understanding with Akademi Binaan Malaysia (ABM) and Pusat Pembangunan Kemahiran Sarawak (PPKS) on Pipe Fitters and Mains Layer competency program ▪ Free water program -RM5 discount to every household |
| 3 | Gas | ▪ DGO, Distribution of Gas (Licensing) Regulations, 2018 ▪ Signing memorandum of understanding with UNIMAS on Gas Tester competency program |
| 4 | General | ▪ Rebranding of Ministry’s name from Ministry of Public Utilities to Ministry of Utilities Sarawak in 2017 ▪ e-utilities system in 2020 ▪ Launching of OACP Book in 2020 |
