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SHAH ALAM: The Selangor government said it will amend state laws to increase the penalty for those who pollute water sources, including rivers.
Menteri Besar (MB) Amirudin Shari, introducing the 2021 state budget, said that these amendments would involve the enactment of the 1999 Lembaga Urus Air Selangor (LUAS).
LUAS is the state agency in charge of managing state water resources and rivers.
“Frequent water contamination in both Sungai Selangor and Sungai Langat led to the closure of water treatment plants, thus cutting off the water supply to residents.
“We will take several other measures in addition to amending the LUAS enactment, such as the use of ‘bioremediation’ for river conservation, as well as the raw water treatment system method.”
He said the “bioremediation” method was a pilot project in Selangor.
Amirudin said that both methods would be used in Sungai Sembah, Sungai Beranang and Sungai Buah, as all three rivers are known as places of water pollution.
In addition to the amendments and the “bioremediation” pilot project, he said there would be stricter enforcement to ensure that houses and factories located very close to rivers were moved or demolished, as there was a high possibility of them polluting rivers.
Sungai Rasau will be a new source of water supply
The state government will also accelerate proposals to make Sungai Rasau the new source of water supply in order to reduce dependence on Sungai Selangor.
“We cannot rely too much on Sungai Selangor as a source. LUAS and Air Selangor are going to form a team known as ‘Skuad Pantas’.
“This team will monitor the situation in the water sources throughout the day.
“This team will randomly sample rivers and prepare their reports,” Amirudin said.
The MB also noted that the average water consumption for a person in Selangor was 222 liters per day, and that the amount was higher than the recommendation of 165 liters per day of the World Health Organization.
“I urge state residents to use water wisely,” Amirudin added.
Odor pollution in Sungai Selangor forced the closure of four water treatment plants on October 19.
The water cuts affected 1,292 areas in the districts of Kuala Lumpur, Petaling, Klang, Shah Alam, Kuala Selangor, Hulu Selangor, Gombak and Kuala Langat, affecting 1.19 million users.
At the beginning of last month, pollution in Sungai Gong, a tributary of Sungai Selangor, caused unscheduled water outages for several days, affecting nearly 1.2 million households in 1,292 areas under the Klang Valley.
The state assembly will resume Monday for budget discussions.
