FOR Atong Arjuna and his ilk, the daily reports on the anti-graft probe into rural development projects in Sabah are just a painful reminder of what should have been.

Their lives were meant to have been more comfortable. Piped water was supposed to have been a reality by now.

But for Atong and friends in Kg Gaya Asli, it has been one litany of broken promises.‎ Theirs is a story replicated in other parts of the Borneo state. 

For as long as the 42-year-old can remember, his family have lived without piped water and have had to rely on harvesting rainwater and well water for their daily needs.

“It’s even harder during the dry season. Now, we have to buy water,” said the tour boat helmsman, a second-generation Bajau Ubian settler. 

A 200-litre drum of water costs around RM7 and a 1,400-litre blue tank around RM45. 

His parents’ kampung is in the Pulau Gaya settlement area, which also includes Kg Lok Urai, Kg Kasuapan and Kg Lobong.

Collectively, the settlement off the coast of Kota Kinabalu is home to some 20,000 residents.

Pulau Gaya is home to those like Atong’s parents, who fled the war in southern Philippines in the 1970s. Now Malaysian citizens, residents here are a vote bank for Barisan Nasional politicians during election season.

Before the 2008 general election, all the kampung were promised treated water supply by Putatan MP, Marcus Mojigoh, of the United Pasokmomogun Kadazandusun Murut Organisation (Upko), a BN component party.

Contractors eventually came in 2010, according to 43-year-old Awang Adri Isil, who moved to Pulau Gaya 30 years ago to be his with his Bajau wife. 

The contractors were from the Rural and Regional Development Ministry and were to build a reservoir tank. The tank was completed in 2015 at a cost of RM135 million but water was never piped to the homes built on stilts over the water.

The project also included a submerged pipeline to channel treated water from Kingfisher Park on the mainline to the island under the rural water supply project (RSWP), and the installation of a power cable at a cost of RM42 million under the rural electrification supply programme (BELB).

The project was under the ministry which Shafie Apdal headed, while he was a federal minister and with Umno. 

Now the president of opposition party, Parti Warisan Sabah, Shafie is under remand to assist an investigation by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission into the alleged embezzlement of RM1.5 billion of federal funds earmarked for rural development projects in the state.

The Pulau Gaya water project is now one of many projects under scrutiny by MACC. 

Although funds were allocated for the piped connections to individual homes, the installation was put on hold pending approval from the state government.

When the state Water Department corruption scandal surfaced, the issue was brought up in the state assembly, where the Sabah government said the installation had not been commissioned because the federal ministry bypassed the state.

No piped water and now, no land

Arwina Ali, 47, who runs a canteen on Pulau Gaya, told The Malaysian Insight that about 1.2ha of her husband’s land were taken by the ministry for the water project. 

“We have been living here for generations. When the officials came to us to take some our land to build the reservoir tank on the hill to store treated water for the kampung, we were more than happy to let the land go.

“My husband didn’t tell me all the details but we knew they were going to supply water for us and he wanted to help,” she said. 

Arwina said she is disappointed that there is still no piped water to their house despite giving up land for the project.

“The only reason the Kota Kinabalu City Hall gave was that many of the villagers did not pay their electricity bills and, therefore, we were not entitled to get treated water.”

Another excuse was that they would be relocated to Kimanis and as such, there was no reason to supply them with treated water, said another resident, Amen Ibrahim, 52.

But the reservoir tank that Arwina’s husband gave up his land for is storing water to supply the Eastern Sabah Security Command Office on the island, the only school on the island, and Gayana Resort.

“We’ve heard that the government wants to turn the island into a tourist area. And we were informed that we might be relocated from here to Kimanis.

“We are not against the government, but they should give us water supply. After all, we have voted for them in many elections,” Amen said.

Asked whether he knew Shafie Apdal, he said they shared the same ethnicity “Bajau Ubian” like most of the villagers in Gaya Asli. Amen also pointed out that Shafie was once an Umno man.

And while Amen was unfamiliar with Shafie’s new party, Warisan, he said the broken promise of treated water supply had made him less inclined to vote for BN in the next general election.

Another broken promise

MACC is also investigating another water supply project.

The RM45 million Semporna treatment plant at Kg Sg Intan was designed by Wilsakaya Sdn Bhd to supply water to Semporna town, in the parliamentary constituency where Shafie is MP.

Warisan member Amarjit Singh, one of the party members arrested in the MACC probe, was the designer for the treatment plant in Kg Sg Intan.

Building of the plant was later tendered out to contractors, while piping for connections to individual homes was to be done by the state Water Department which is under the purview of the Sabah government.

The water connection for the residents was also supposed to be done by the water department and not the federal ministry.

While the plant was completed last year, it is still non-operational.

MACC chief commissioner Dzulkifli Ahmad visited the Semporna plant on October 12 and said residents have been waiting more than 30 years for a stable water supply but until now, have to source water from a well that they built themselves. – October 26, 2017.