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KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s Minister of Environment and Water said on Monday (October 19) that he expected the water supply to be restored within 24 hours in Selangor, as 5 million consumers were affected by water cuts, the second major outage in a week.
This comes after Air Selangor announced on Saturday that the water supply to 686 areas was affected by a burst pipe in phase 1 of the Sungai Selangor water treatment plant.
Mr. Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man told a press conference that his ministry, along with other law enforcement authorities and the affected water concessionaire Air Selangor, were investigating the source of the contamination.
“This time, it is not as serious as the last time,” he said, referring to recent contamination in early October in Sungai Semenyih that recorded an odor threshold number (TON) of 9.
READ: Water cuts in Malaysia: Graft launches investigation into river pollution in Selangor
He added: “We expect the four water treatment plants (WTPs) to resume operation in another hour or two and thus restore the water supply to some five million consumers in 24 hours.”
The minister also said: “We have identified certain areas (as the source of the contamination) but everything is in factory areas.
“We noticed the pattern. It always happens late at night or on the weekends and I think criminals are committing the crimes at this time when surveillance is at its lowest point. Because the river areas are not being watched all the time, these crimes are always committed late at night, early in the morning or on weekends. “
Malaysia’s Minister of Environment and Water, Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man. (File photo: Bernama)
Mr. Tuan Ibrahim then emphasized that his ministry will not undertake to punish the guilty.
“We are working very hard to ensure that these criminals are punished and we will not compromise when it comes to punishing them. We just hope that, as a ministry, we can take effective action against these criminals, ”he said during the press conference.
The current odor contamination that has caused the shutdown of phases 1, 2 and 3 of Sungai Selangor, as well as the Rantau Panjang water treatment plant, registered a reading of 3 TON and 1 TON, respectively.
According to the UK-based Center for Water Research, the TON of contaminant in water can be determined by adding a volume of uncontaminated water to a volume of contaminated water, and then dividing the total volume by the volume of contaminated water .
The more water needed to make the odor undetectable, the higher the TON reading.
READ: Malaysia water outages: Supply ‘fully restored’ in KL and other affected areas, says Air Selangor
The Environment Ministry in a statement on Monday said that early investigations found that the smell of solvent detected in the contaminated water was similar to the previous contamination that occurred in Sungai Semenyih and Sungai Gong.
“Air Selangor has activated an Emergency Reaction Plan (ERP) to immediately deploy assistance to water users on land.
“Separately, more than 336 million liters of water from an alternative source have been pumped into the river for the discharge process,” the statement said.
Early Monday, the Selangor Water Management Authority announced that all four water treatment plants had to be closed due to odor contamination.
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 of the Klang Valley.
Residents queuing to collect water from an Air Selangor tanker. (Photo: Bernama)
RESIDENTS SURPRISED BY SUCCESSIVE WATER CUTS
Those in the Klang Valley interviewed by CNA said they were caught offside by the two rounds of water outages so close to each other.
Public Relations official Iqa Halim said her family, who live in Shah Alam, had just recovered their supply from the last water outage and were surprised to have to face it again.
“We had already experienced water outages for almost two days due to the pipe breaking and we only had water back at 9 pm last night (October 18). So we didn’t expect to have another water outage less than 24 hours later.
“We were unable to prepare this morning before this second round of water outages. For now, we can only trust the water tank in the house, ”he said.
Ms Iqa, who currently lives with 11 family members, including her twins, said that the increasing frequency of water outages has become extremely challenging for her.
“It is undeniable that it is difficult to deal with endless water cuts, especially with two children. Most of the water we get is reserved for them, so we can’t really use that much for anything else …
“Usually we store water in three huge containers outside our house in case there is a water shortage, but the water runs out pretty quickly as there are so many of us.”
READ: Selangor residents reeling from water disruption caused by bad smell
Similarly, businessman Selvam Narayanan, who lives in Bangsar, said he didn’t know what to do once the tanks in his apartment ran out.
“We just finished one (water outage) and we thought we finally had water, so it becomes like this. So we are dependent on the tank for now and how long it takes to resume supply. We should wait for the (water) trucks, I guess, ”he said.
Lainey Ying, a resident of Subang Jaya, shared that she, like everyone else, was tired of the water outages. He called on the authorities to step up and take action against the perpetrators.
“What you have to do is go ahead or warn people in advance when such things happen. We always hear they got this and that technology, but we almost always get the tip at the last minute and we have to fight.
“There is also a serious need for closer monitoring and stricter regulations and laws for the irresponsible parties that pollute our precious water resources,” he said.
THE MINISTRY PROMISES TO INCREASE SURVEILLANCE
Speaking about measures to overcome water pollution and supply disruption problems, Tuan Ibrahim said during the press conference that his ministry will add more monitoring devices and surveillance officers on the ground.
“The allocation for these improvements will be included in the 2021 Budget. But for your information, we currently have an Early Warning System at our water treatment plants for contamination to ensure that operations are immediately stopped when contamination is detected.” He said.
Furthermore, the minister said that as a long-term plan, his ministry and the relevant water authorities were working to secure alternative water sources in case incidents like this occurred.
“We are working to ensure that there are alternatives with water that last at least a few hours … while the problem is resolved. Even if the contamination continues, there will be some water. “
However, the minister pointed out that the search for alternative sources of water would take between two and three years and was not an immediate solution to the problem.
