Kota Kinabalu: The water supply shortage faced by the Sabah Women and Children’s Hospital in Likas has been resolved, according to Community Development and People’s Wellbeing Minister Datuk James Ratib.
He said this during his visit to the hospital on Tuesday to personally look into the matter.
“We found today that the water supply in the Sabah Women and Children’s Hospital is enough and the matter has been addressed a long time ago,” he said, adding that his visit was to ensure the hospital gets sufficient water supply for its daily use.
He was accompanied by State Health Director Dr Asits Sanna, Sabah Women and Children’s Hospital Director Dr Marcus Netto and several officials from the Water Department.
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“My visit is also to ensure that Sabah Women and Children’s Hospital, as well as every hospital in Sabah, has sufficient water supply and also to prevent accusations from some quarters that only manipulate issues or viral matters that they don’t know,” he said.
According to him, a new pipe outlet has also been opened to ensure that the hospital in Likas receives an adequate supply of water if there is a problem with water shortage in the area.
“This means the water issue has been addressed immediately and there is no problem,” he said.
A proposal to enable the temporary parking of patients and their families on state land adjacent to the hospital would be presented to the Cabinet meeting for consideration, he added.
“There is a vacant plot of about 10 acres behind and in front of the hospital, and I will submit a proposal for at least three or four acres to be used as temporary parking space for the hospital,” he said.
He said a private owned land was previously used by the hospital as its temporary parking space. However, the land owner has since taken back his land for development purposes, leaving the hospital with parking congestion issues.
James also suggested an alternative route to the hospital in view of the existing congested narrow stretch heading to the hospital.
“I urge the Public Works Department to consider an alternative route to the hospital to avoid congestion,” he said.
He also suggested that a special committee be set up by the Ministry in collaboration with the State Health Department to address issues, especially relating to utility issues faced by hospitals so that immediate action can be taken to address it.
Dr Marcus said a total of RM145,000 has so far been spent to buy water since March this year.
“We had disruptions on and off, so we had to buy water for services,” he said, adding that the cost was borne by the Government.
“We use about 20,000 metre cubes per month, with daily water usage of 110,000 gallons,” he said, adding they have 52 water tanks now but intend to add more.
“Now the water pressure needs to be stabilised by opening up new pipe outlets,” he said.
Meanwhile, Dr Asits welcomed the Minister’s proposal to set up a special committee to address issues faced by the hospital.
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