KUCHING, Oct 3 — Since last month, over 100 families of Kampung Sangai Empani in the Sarawak district of Serian had to return to collect water from a stream for their daily needs despite recently having pipes installed in their homes.

Serian DAP chief Edward Luak said this was because supply for the tap water which is currently fed through a gravity system from a mini dam upstream of Sungai Sangai, had dwindled.

“Since the last two days, there is no water coming out from their taps,” he told Malay Mail Online yesterday.

The villagers need not have to collect the water from the stream if the Serian district health office not barred volunteers from connecting the new set of pipes from the  mini dam to a main pipe that distributes water to every house.

The mini dam was built and completed last month by volunteers under a DAP-sponsored project called Impian Malaysia, and cost less than RM50,000.

In a letter dated August 26 this year to Kampung Sangai Meringgu Empani’s pipe committee chairman Saimon Empaloh, Serian district health officer Dr Sharifah Norashikin Wan Ahmad said the Health Ministry, which owns the main gravity feed water supply system at the village, had disallowed the volunteers to connect the new pipes.

She said the ministry would not object if the village wanted to build a new water supply distribution system involving all the villagers, so long as it did not disrupt the present system.

But Luak disputes the reason given in the letter, saying he suspected the district health office was under political pressure to bar the village pipe connectivity.

“The local Barisan Nasional politicians are jealous of our success and that is why they do not want to see these villagers enjoying our Impian Sarawak water project,” Luak claimed.

He also voiced his suspicion that the letter may have been backdated to August 26, as the pipe committee chief at Kampung Sangai Meringgu Empani only received the letter a few days ago.

Luak said he would try to meet Dahim Nadot, the Resident of Serian as soon as possible, to ask him to overrule  the decision of the health office.

“You cannot deprive these villagers from getting the water supply right into their kitchens,” he said.

Kampung Sangai Empani is one of the Bidayuh villages in the Kedup state constituency.

A few years ago, the state Public Works Department had built a mini-dam at Sungai Sinok from which the village could get its supply of fresh water, which was later handed over to the Health Ministry.

“However, the water from this dam is insufficient to meet the demand of over 100 families.

“The villagers then approach the DAP Serian branch for help, after failing to get the health office to upgrade the mini-dam,” Luak said, narrating the village’s piped water development.

It was then that Luak said he raised the issue to the state DAP’s attention.

He said the DAP-sponsored mini dam is for the whole villagers, including the supporters of the Barisan Nasional.

“Therefore, there is no reason to stop the installation of the new pipes to the existing distribution system since it will benefit all,” he said.