Warisan president Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal has dismissed claims that terminating water concession contracts caused Sabah’s financial losses, saying water shortages remained even when private firms were in charge.

He said the problem existed long before Warisan took power. 

The concessions failed to fix it. Instead, some parties have turned water into a business, forcing villagers to buy what should have been a public service, he said. 

“The water issue has been there for a long time. Even before Warisan, water in Sabah was already rationed,” he said when met by reporters during a breaking of fast event in Balung, Tawau, on Tuesday.

Pipes leaked, entire villages went without clean water, and yet concessionaires kept collecting payments. People were left with no choice but to buy water from third parties while the state supply remained unreliable.

“In some villages, people don’t get water from the pipes, but they can buy water from others. Why is that happening?” he said.

He said Warisan’s decision to terminate the contracts was about plugging financial leakages, just as the Prime Minister has done at the federal level.

“If the Prime Minister is taking action on financial leakages, why shouldn’t we do the same?

“We terminated the contracts because they were not solving the problem,” he said.

The state government claimed the terminations caused RM315 million in losses, but Shafie argued Sabah had already been bleeding money. 

For instance, Shafie pointed to the RM44 million allocated annually to the Deputy State Secretary as an example, demanding answers over nearly RM80 million spent over two years.

“I asked the Deputy State Secretary, last year it was RM44 million, this year it’s RM44 million. 

“Almost RM80 million over two years. Where is that money? What is its purpose?” he said.

He dismissed concerns over job losses, saying all concessionaire employees were absorbed into the water department.

“We terminated [the contracts] to streamline the department, but we included all the former employees of the concessionaire companies into the water department. They were not terminated. Instead, we strengthened the workforce,” he said.

Shafie warned that without accountability, Sabahans will continue to suffer while profiteering from water shortages thrives – March 12, 2025