Businessman provides piped water for RM5,000 instead of the estimated RM350,000

A businessman decided to take matters into his own hands when the Sarawak state government refused to provide treated piped water to his village by getting the job done himself.

And it only cost him RM5,000 instead of the RM350,000 estimated by the Public Works Department.

Three years ago, Sarawak Women and Family Development Minister Datuk Fatimah Abdullah was quoted saying that it was not viable to spend RM350,000 for piped water for eight households in a small village in Dalat, Sarawak.

Determined to bring a change to the village, businessman Ho Yen Guan who grew up there, met the ministry and proposed to do the job himself for just RM5,000 by purchasing 14 rolls of poly pipe, 11 pieces of poly sockets, meter installation and labour cost for land clearing and laying of pipes.

The project was completed within two months.

Fatimah who visited one of the house in the village, which belonged to Ho’s sister said she was happy that the project adhered to the government regulations.

“I turned on the tap myself and it worked. I don’t know how Mr Ho (Yen Guan) did it. But he did. I was so amazed that with just RM5,000, he could get it done,” she told Borneo Post.

Fatimah is also mulling over the idea of applying the method to other villages facing similar situation.

Asked if he was an engineer, Ho said what he had done did not require the knowledge of a rocket scientist or an engineer but just the result of logic and thinking out of the box.