Kota Kinabalu: Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) Vice-Chancellor Datuk Dr Kasim Mansur has openly for the first time refuted claims by the state Water Department that the campus has sufficient water supply.
He said the shortage is real and ongoing and that it was misleading to suggest that water supply to the university is adequate, pointing to frequent complaints and demonstrations by students as clear evidence.
“If there was enough water, the students wouldn’t be shouting, they wouldn’t be protesting.
window.googletag = window.googletag || {cmd: []};googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.defineSlot('/22826383987/dailyexpress_inline', [1, 1], 'gpt-passback').addService(googletag.pubads());googletag.enableServices();googletag.display('gpt-passback');});“To say the supply is always enough is a lie. It’s insulting our intelligence. We are not stupid,” he said.
Saying UMS does not want to politicise the issue, but has a responsibility to be transparent about the real situation on the ground, Kassim said the public deserves to know the truth.
He expressed concern that some government officials may not be raising the severity of the problem with their superiors out of fear of repercussions.
“We are not politicians. We are academics. But they play politics with the university.
“We have to be practical. We have to be realistic. I have no political agenda. But I cannot stay silent when my students are suffering and the public is being misled. Some just say ‘yes boss, yes boss’ instead of telling the truth,” he added.
Kasim said he rarely reached out to the media, but felt compelled to speak up this time through the Daily Express.
“When it comes to this stage, it’s too much. I really cannot tolerate,” he said.
His rebuttal came after the Department issued a statement on May 29, claiming that Tank R13 — which supplies UMS — has never been empty and that its volume exceeds the university’s daily requirement of five million litres.
It also suggested that the root of the issue lies in UMS’s internal pumping system and advised the university to upgrade its equipment.
According to Kasim, the main water source for UMS – the R13 tank – has not been able to sustain pumping levels required to meet the university’s needs.
While the tank was designed to serve UMS when it was established in 1995 and fully operational by 2000, it now also supplies water to surrounding areas including 1Borneo, Alamesra, Kingfisher, Hospital Likas, and federal and state government buildings.
UMS estimates that over 23,000 people – including students, staff, and daily visitors – use the university’s water facilities during the day with about 10,000 students residing on campus.
The university requires at least 3.5 to 5 million litres of water daily to function normally, but current pumping levels fall short, often providing less than 1.5 million litres per day.
“At night, we have 10,000 students on campus. During the day, it’s 23,000 people including 8,000 students from off-campus and 3,800 staff. How can you say that’s enough water?” he said.
To adapt to the persistently low water levels at R13, UMS lowered its pump intake in 2023. However, JANS subsequently instructed the university to stop pumping whenever levels fell below 0.5 metres – a restriction enforced via the R13 UMS-JANS WhatsApp group.
Kasim explained that if UMS continues to pump below this level, other critical users like Hospital Likas and surrounding residential areas would face dry taps.
According to him, internal data from the department showed that UMS was capable of pumping over 5 million litres per day — but only when the R13 tank level remained consistently above 1.0 metres.
Since the level rarely stays that high, UMS had to take its own initiative in lowering the pump to avoid being entirely cut off.
UMS also relies on nine tube wells as a backup source, constructed using a RM3mil allocation from the Prime Minister and an additional RM2mil from the Higher Education Ministry.
These wells collectively produce around 1.1 to 1.5 million litres daily, but the water is untreated and used only for toilets, cleaning, and laundry.
Kasim said the university has made significant efforts to mitigate the shortage, including rainwater harvesting systems with limited storage capacity. Still, these measures fall short of meeting daily demand.
He also responded to recent criticisms about the campus pump system breaking down.
“Yes, the pump broke down three weeks ago — but it was repaired within three days,” he said. “This issue has been going on since 2020. Don’t use the pump as an excuse.”
Despite repeatedly writing to the department, Kasim said the university has been ignored.
He showed multiple official letters sent over the past year, appealing for immediate attention to the campus’s critical water situation.
“We keep on sending letters to JANS (department) saying we don’t have water. But they never reply,” he said.
