KOTA BARU, March 31 — Air Kelantan Sdn Bhd (AKSB) subscribers owe the water concessionaire RM33 million in unpaid water bills as of last February, the state assembly was told today.

State Public Works, Infrastructure, Transport and Utilities Committee chairman Datuk Azami Mohd Nor said the arrears involved a total of 271,876 AKSB account holders.

"Therefore, I appeal to members of the house to inform their constituents about this and ask them to pay their water bills. With the payment, we can pay AKSB’s debt to the relevant parties,” he said this in response to a question from Rohani Ibrahim (PAS-Tanjong Mas).

Rohani wanted to know the progress of the implementation of the 4,006-kilometre Asbestos Cement (AC) pipe replacement programme, to be carried out over 35 years from 2018 to 2030 and involved cost of RM1.3 billion.

Clarifying on the project, Azami said it involved installation of 241.42 km of pipes in the Kota Baru, Gua Musang and Tumpat districts through the Pengurusan Aset Air Berhad (PAAB) financing programme, which was completed in 2018.

"In 2019, in involved the installation of 225 km pipe in four districts, namely Kota Baru, Tanah Merah, Kuala Krai and Machang and the financing of this project has to be repaid as it is a loan and one of the sources of AKSB’s revenue is through payments from AKSB account holders for their water bills,” he said. — Bernama