THE Environment and Water Ministry will be revising the River Sand Mining Guidelines (Amendment) 2020 for long-term plans to avoid incidents of burst pipes in the riverbed.

Minister-in-charge Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man said the improvements will include marking every underwater pipe, including those in riverbeds.

“Marking of pipes need to be done because no one would realise there are main pipes underwater if they are unmarked. Plus, there are compliance issues as well, for example, the distance of the building from the main pipe for sand mining and such,” he told reporters after inspecting the location site of the burst pipe at the riverbed of Sg Terengganu, Kuala Terengganu, today.

Tuan Ibrahim said the guidelines issued by the Department of Irrigation and Drainage has been agreed upon by all state governments and has been in use since 2015.

He said the guidelines were aimed at creating a more inclusive and uniformed guide to process applications of river sand mining throughout Malaysia by considering the ecosystem balance and morphology of the river, in addition to determining the quantity of sand that can be mined within a set period of time.

Tuan Ibrahim also said that RM2.5 million was spent to overcome the worst water supply crisis in Terengganu that occurred when the 1.2 metre main pipe burst at the riverbed of Sg Terengganu.

The water supply crisis that affected 150,000 residents in Kuala Nerus district and part of Kuala Terengganu lasted for 12 days from August 2 when the main pipe in the Sg Terengganu riverbed burst. Water was restored in stages on August 13.

However, on August 23, the same pipe burst again and repair work is expected to take 20 days. The repair of the burst pipe is expected to be completed on September 12 as the damage was worse than the first incident. 
 
Meanwhile, the operation of Bukit Berapit water treatment plant will also be ramped up, and it is expected to commence on September 14 at 50% capacity or 60 million litres a day. – Bernama, September 2, 2021.