Annual report on North Borneo / Colonial Office.

  • Great Britain. Colonial Office.
Date:
[1949]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report on North Borneo / Colonial Office. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    56/86 (page 50)
    towns, water supplies have been taxed to their fullest capacity on account of the expansion of piped water-consuming areas and the increased demand from shipping using the ports. This demand has been met as far as possible, in spite of the poor condition of much of the pumping equipment and pipes. It is hoped that, in 1950, further replacements will be effected as orders for new plant are fulfilled. In the principal towns the position was as follows: Jesselton. Jesselton is fortunate in having an adequate catchment area within four miles of the town. The water is impounded in a reservoir of some 6 million cubic feet capacity. It is pumped from the intake to an elevated service reservoir of 40,000 gallons capacity where it is chlorinated and then gravitated to Jesselton. The water is soft and potable, but is heavily charged with finely divided clay, which raises such difficulties as the rapid encrustation of pipes, necessitating the constant cleaning of reservoirs and tanks and the scouring of mains. It is satisfactory to record that a continuous 24-hour supply was made available and that water rationing has ceased over the greater part of the town and suburbs. This was made possible by the installation of two Tangye pumps, the laying of 12 miles of mains, and the installation of two overhead tanks each of 12,500 gallons capacity. Much work remains to be carried out, and this will be done as supplies become available. Although the present water supply is chlorinated, there is no filtration or sedimentation; neither is there a service reservoir of sufficient capacity and elevation to provide an economic reticulation which is so necessary for fire-fighting. Sandakan. In the town area the water supply is piped, but the suburbs still depend on springs and wells. There are two sources for the former, a pump supply and a gravity supply. In the first case the water is pumped 3 J miles, in twin 6-inch mains, from Batu Lima, by two electrically driven pumps of 150 gallons per minute capacity, to a service reservoir of 145,000 gallons capacity. After chlorination it is gravitated to houses and stand¬ pipes in the town. Elevated areas are dealt with by the use of gravity supplies from high level tanks, which are filled by supplementary pumps at the service reservoir. The second source is a supplementary supply fed through a 6-inch main from an impounding reservoir a mile from the town. Its reputed capacity is over 2 million gallons, but it is unreliable, as it dries up during dry weather. There was a marked increase in consumption during the year, the total being over 35 million gallons, compared with 25 million gallons in 1948. Shipping was supplied with over 3J million gallons, compared with just over 2 million gallons in the previous year. Over 400 new consumers were added during 1949. The town received a 6-8 hours supply daily, but the quantity supplied to shipping was unrestricted. Labuan. The water supply in Labuan comes from nine boreholes, each approximately 200 feet in depth, which were constructed by the Australian Forces during the liberation period. The supply continued to be sufficient for all purposes, including shipping requirements. Shipping