Double blow as haze-choked Sri Aman folks face water shortage

It's a double blow for some 100,000 urban folks in Sri Aman, Sarawak, who besides having to deal with the choking haze situation, now find themselves facing a shortage in the water supply.

Sri Aman Division Resident Indit Bangai said all government assets have been moved to assist the people.

“Some 80,000 face masks have been distributed, including to students and civil servants.

“This is besides the water bombing operations to be carried out by the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) to put out the fires between Lingga and Kampung STC,” he said after the division-level Disaster Management Committee meeting today.

The MMEA's Bombardier planes were expected to arrive from Miri at 1pm today for a two-hour water bombing exercise in the affected areas.

Meanwhile, Sri Aman Rural Water Supply Department engineer Adzahari Baini said so far, eight of the 10 water plants in the division are having low water levels.

“The affected water plants are Bayai, Stumbin, Seduku, Lingga, LDS, Engkilili, Melugu and Pantu, all of which are at critical levels following the hot and dry weather for the past one month,” he said.

“If this continues, some 15,000 households in Sri Aman will be affected, he told Bernama.

Water rationing in several of the plants is being carried out as a precautionary measure, he added.

“Among the critical ones are the plants in Lingga, Stumbin, Seduku, Melugu and Engkilili,” he said.

The air quality in Sri Aman, meanwhile, showed a slight improvement at 8am today to very unhealthy, from hazardous level yesterday.

- Bernama