The Never-Ending Nightmare

PETALING JAYA: The recent water rationing exercise affecting Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya has turned into a never-ending nightmare for many.

Consumers not only have to suffer an ongoing cycle of two days without water followed by two days with it, but also have to cope with unpredictable supply as the water schedules by Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd (Syabas) have not been adhered to.

In the midst of all this, Selangor Menteri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim has become the proverbial “punching bag” for disgruntled and fed-up consumers as well Barisan Nasional MPs as the cause of this whole water “mess.”

Should the blame fall on Khalid’s shoulders?

Yes and no.

Yes, said Water and Energy Consumer Association of Malaysia (Wecam) secretary-general Foon Weng Lian because the Selangor government did not implement measures in preparation for the water crisis despite it being predicted since 2010.

Khalid, he said, is also to blame for reassuring the public that the state had enough water to sustain it till 2019, despite being told repeatedly that the Langat 2 treatment plant was needed to avert a water crisis.

However, Foon feels Khalid should not be blamed for the water rationing exercise as it was the “most logical measure at the moment.”

However, Foon said that did not excuse the government and Syabas from following the very schedules it had drawn up to deal with the crisis.

“You came up with this water rationing plan. Why can’t you just implement it properly?” he asked, adding that the government should improve the implementation of the exercise and reduce non-revenue water (NRW).

Foon explained that the water rationing exercise is to prevent water levels in dams from further going down and to prevent a “water emergency” from being declared.

Section 56 of the Water Services Industry Act 2006 allows the Energy, Green Technology and Water minister to declare a water emergency and to prohibit or restrict the use of water for general or specific purposes as well as impose any surcharge in case the water consumption exceeds the allowable volume of water.

With the guns trained on Khalid, opposing MPS from the BN are demanding the menteri besar adopt short-term measures to ease the shortage.

Selangor opposition leader Datuk Mohd Shamsudin Lias had reportedly said that instead of spending millions providing free 20 cubic metres of water to consumers when there was no water, the state should consider buying water from other states, such as Negeri Sembilan, to solve the water shortage immediately.


“The state's plans are too long term and cloud seeding may not have a high success rate. Buying water will be a short-term solution that will solve the problem immediately,” he said, referring to Khalid saying that the federal and Selangor governments had agreed to engage a company in Thailand to carry out cloud seeding in critical dam areas starting next week.

The Negeri Sembilan government was initially prepared to sell a maximum of 20 million gallons (76 million litres) of water per day to Selangor but had retracted the offer after Khalid was reported to have declined it, saying the amount was too little for Selangor.

Foon agreed with Khalid, saying the infrastructure costs for transferring the water would be too high.

“The costs would then be passed on the consumers. It’s a bit too little when you take into account the other costs involved.

“For example, for the Selangor-Pahang interstate raw water transfer, the tunnel and pipes itself cost RM2 billion and that only provides an additional 1,000 million litres of water per day,” he said.

Foon, however, did agree that the public should be charged for water.

“Our stand has always been that everyone should be charged for water and that the 20 cubic metres of free water should only be given to the hardcore poor.

“When you want to buy water from other states, what are you going to do to bring the water over? The money saved by charging consumers should instead be used to reduce non-revenue water (NRW),” he said.

On suggestions that groundwater be used, Foon said more studies had to be done before doing so.

“We have five trillion cubic metres of ground water. When you can’t even control surface water where rivers in the country are so polluted that we have to shut down plants because of it, how confident are you that you will be able to control groundwater or prevent the illegal extraction of it?

While the blame game goes on, water supply rationing for the first, third and fourth stages of the plan is expected to end on April 30.

Syabas’ corporate communications and public affairs assistant general manager Priscilla Alfred was quoted as saying that this would, however, depend on the decision of the state government and the National Water Services Commission (SPAN).

"The implementation of the first, third and fourth stages of water rationing is still on as planned and decided by the state government (until April 30)," she said.

Until the exercise ends on April 30, consumers affected by the rationing will just have to continue to grit their teeth and suffer dry taps.


Source: The Ant Daily