KUCHING (Jan 15): The Utility and Telecommunication Ministry of Sarawak is looking forward to hearing new ideas and suggestions from the young local IT talents towards facilitating the development and management of water utilities in the state.

In this respect, minister Datuk Julaihi Narawi says his ministry is focusing on best ways to improve the water management systems through technologies.

He adds that the digitisation of the utilities should proactively help in detecting problems affecting water infrastructure through timely maintenance and repairs.

“We need solution providers, like IT solutions (for utilities) in the near future to address issues such as we still having physical filling where we send bills to consumers throughout the region for water, electricity and other related supplies,” he said in his speech for the launch of Sarawak’s first property market application (app) ‘Property Axis’, at Borneo Convention Centre Kuching (BCCK) yesterday.

Julaihi said his ministry wanted to work with experts such as Karuna Sarawak, a digital technology company and apps developer, towards facilitating efforts to develop water utilities in Sarawak.

“Technology applications like what Karuna and Sains (Sarawak Information Systems Sdn Bhd) have done (developing Property Axis) would be beneficial in the future because from the information that I’ve received about the app, it is capable of assisting buyers gain real-time knowledge about properties.

“I believe Karuna and other talents out there will be able to assist the ministry in developing more apps in the future to tackle problems and provide solutions for Sarawak. We need such expertise together with Sains, or with anybody with talents, to develop and solve our problem of physical filling right now.

“We also want, in the near future, for our bills to be delivered to all users throughout Sarawak through apps developed by IT experts.

“Maybe with the cooperation from all the experts and so on, we could find ways to solve this because the way we look at it, it is a solution.

“Another example is we being unable to calculate how much of the water supplied is not reaching the users.

“Perhaps, if we had apps set to solve this problem – this can be explored in the near future.”

Borneo Post, By Nur Shazreena Ali