Regions

A district monitoring unit's own backlog register lists nineteen unfinished projects

A capacity report shows demand ahead of supply. This year's capital budget allocates 34 million ringgit against a backlog the register separately values at 61 million ringgit.

By Rosita Lasimbang · 18 July 2026 · 4 min read

Case names, entities and officials in this report are composite and illustrative. References to public bodies describe their statutory role only.

The backlog

The Papar Water Infrastructure Monitoring Unit, a body that independently tracks supply-works project status across the district, maintains a backlog asset register. The register lists nineteen infrastructure items classified as 'backlog,' meaning work approved in a prior budget cycle that has not yet been completed, as of the register's most recent update in June.

The nineteen backlog items span three categories: purification capacity upgrades, distribution pipe replacement, and pump station rehabilitation. The register's own category count lists eight purification items, seven pipe items and four pump station items.

The oldest item on the backlog list, a purification capacity upgrade at the district's Kilang Tengah facility, was first approved in the 2021 budget cycle. The register's status field lists it as 'not started' as of the June update.

The register's own notes field records a reason for delay against twelve of the nineteen items, most commonly citing 'contractor unavailability' or 'design revision required'; the remaining seven items carry no reason entered in that field.

Purification against demand

An annual capacity report, compiled by the monitoring unit from its own inspection and reporting programme, states current purification capacity across the district at 42 million litres per day, a figure the report attributes to the combined rated output of the district's three purification plants.

The same report states projected demand for 2026 at 51 million litres per day, drawn from a population and consumption model the report describes but does not reproduce in full. The report does not state what happens to supply during hours when demand exceeds the stated capacity figure.

The capacity report lists the Kilang Tengah upgrade, the oldest item on the backlog register, as the project expected to add 6 million litres per day of purification capacity once completed. The report does not give a target completion date for the upgrade beyond the general statement that it 'remains a budget priority.'

Non-revenue losses

The monitoring unit's non-revenue water report, a routine compilation distinct from the capacity report, states that 38 percent of water entering the district's distribution network in the 2025 financial year did not reach a billed connection, a figure the report attributes to a combination of pipe leakage and unbilled authorised use.

The report breaks the 38 percent figure into two components without stating the split as a single combined number: leakage, which the report describes as the larger component, and unbilled authorised use, which the report defines to include water used for firefighting and network flushing.

Seven of the nineteen backlog items, all pipe replacement projects, are listed in the non-revenue water report as projects that would address leakage specifically. The report does not state how much of the 38 percent figure those seven projects, if completed, would be expected to recover.

The non-revenue water report attributes the district's 38 percent figure to an estimate rather than a direct measurement, noting that not every connection point along the distribution network is metered and that the figure instead derives from a sample of district meter readings taken quarterly.

What has been budgeted

The monitoring unit's 2026 capital budget summary allocates 34 million ringgit against the backlog register's nineteen items, according to the summary's own line for the category, against a total the register separately lists as needed to clear the full backlog: 61 million ringgit.

The budget summary does not name which of the nineteen items the 34 million ringgit is allocated to individually, listing the sum only against the backlog category as a whole rather than itemised by project.

A budget note attached to the capital budget summary states that the remaining shortfall 'will be carried forward for consideration in the following cycle,' identical wording to a note attached to the 2025 capital budget summary on file with the unit.

The monitoring unit has not stated which of the nineteen backlog items, including the Kilang Tengah upgrade, will be funded from the 34 million ringgit allocated this cycle, or which will again be carried forward.

The 2025 capital budget summary allocated 29 million ringgit against the same backlog category the year before, according to a copy on file; the register does not state how much of that earlier allocation was actually spent against specific items during that cycle.

A capacity report that shows demand ahead of supply and a budget that funds about half the backlog register's own total tells you where the pressure sits. It doesn't tell you which of the nineteen projects gets the money this cycle, and that's the part residents actually want to know.