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KUALA LUMPUR – For six consecutive days earlier this month, Ms. Zaharah Ramli patiently queued up to fill four buckets of water to take her to her 9th floor apartment at PPR Kampung Baru Hicom Seksyen 26, Selangor.
The 58-year-old cleaner joined hundreds of thousands of people across Kuala Lumpur and Selangor who were forced to wait for tanker trucks as the water supply to homes and industries was abruptly cut off.
At least 1.2 million consumer accounts were affected when the water supply was shut off starting Thursday (September 3) to prevent pollution discharged by a factory from entering four water treatment plants. The water started to flow again from last Saturday (September 6) to Tuesday (September 8).
“At a time when we have to be frugal due to the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, I had to use my money to buy water because it is not enough. I cannot afford this,” he told The Straits Times.
“I am very upset, especially when my husband and I are still trying to find our footing after being laid off recently. I hope this doesn’t happen again,” she said. Her husband had worked as a security guard.
A week after the incident, although most Malaysians have moved, it is unclear how authorities are preparing for the next supply disruption, beyond reassuring words.
Federal Territories Minister Annuar Musa said last week (September 5): “A long-term solution needs to be found, including that the Federal Territories have their own water authority, as well as a supply system (of backup or alternate water). This needs to be explored right away. “
The Minister of Environment and Water, Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man, on the same day (September 5) also said that the Environmental Quality Law and the Water Services Law would be amended to increase penalties for causing supply interruptions.
He said the government is also considering establishing an environmental crimes unit to tackle illegal activities that threaten the country’s natural resources.
Water is a complex issue in Malaysia as it often involves political relationships between federal and state governments, federal and state laws, and various stakeholders such as water asset management companies.
Added to this is the rapid increase in new condominiums, office towers and industrial estates in the Klang Valley, the most densely populated districts of Malaysia that include the federal territories of Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya and the southern districts of Selangor.
This means that water assets must be constantly updated to meet demand.
“Klang Valley is increasing exponentially. Because the demand is high and the supply is lower, there was a shortage,” Selangor MP Charles Santiago told The Straits Times. Previously, he was president of the National Water Services Commission, or SPAN.
The lack of deep-water reserves at KL-Putrajaya-Selangor, which would alleviate abrupt water supply cuts, would be addressed with the Langat 2 project, he said.
The project is expected to be fully completed by 2023.
The project, which involved raw water transferred from Pahang to Selangor, had been hampered for many years by politics, as the then federal government of Barisan Nasional (BN) was at odds with the federal opposition parties that gained power in Selangor in 2008.
Urging the federal government to rectify frequent interruptions in the water supply, the non-governmental organization requested on Friday (September 11) that a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) be established to find out what had happened and future steps to take. .
“The best way to investigate and find a solution to the problem is to establish an RCI to address the endless disruptions that are occurring in Selangor alone,” said President M. Selventhiranhe of the National Association of Prosperous Unity. “An action plan should be drawn up to end these too frequent water cuts in Selangor.”
SELANGOR, KL, PUTRAJAYA SHARING WATER RESOURCES
The state of Selangor, the federal territories of Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya, generally called the Klang Valley, share the same water resources.
The Klang Valley is the most densely populated district in the country, with around seven million people.
Klang Valley consumes 3,243 million liters per day in 2017, 6.39% more than in 2014 and a third of the total amount of treated water consumed throughout Malaysia.
By comparison, Singapore, with 5.7 million people, consumes 430 million gallons a day, the national water agency PUB said on its website. It is about 1,628 million liters per day.
Water assets in Malaysia are generally controlled by the federal government under the Water Services Industry Act (WSIA) 2006.
The water assets include rivers and reservoirs in Selangor, water treatment plants and the mostly underground distribution network.
According to Selangor’s chief minister, Amirudin Shari, margins on water reserves in the past had been as low as 3 percent. But this increased to 10 percent when the first and second phases of the Langat 2 water treatment project began operations in January this year.
Langat 2 is part of the Pahang-Selangor raw water transfer project costing RM8 billion (S $ 2.63 billion).
The project includes the transfer of raw river water from neighboring Pahang state, conducting the water through a 45km tunnel under the mountains from Pahang to Selangor, and ending at the Hulu Langat treatment plant in Selangor.
The project is scheduled for completion in 2023.
Upon completion, the plant could provide 1.13 billion liters per day to the residents of the Klang Valley, and the volume would at least double from 20 years ago.
The complications were not helped by previous government interventions.
In 1994, the BN federal government privatized the Jabatan Bekalan Air Selangor (JBAS) water entity, or the Selangor water supply department.
JBAS ‘profitable water treatment services were transferred into private hands, while the state government kept the loss-making water distribution business.
Three water treatment companies, Puncak Niaga, Syarikat Pengeluar Air Sungai Selangor (Splash) and Konsortium Abbas, received concessions of 20 to 25 years to treat the water and sell it to JBAS for distribution.
JBAS was later corporatized under BN administration as Perbadanan Urus Air Selangor (Puas), or Selangor Water Management Authority.
While all three companies made profits, JBAS and then Puas made losses.
Puas itself was privatized in 2005 and renamed Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor (Syabas), a subsidiary of Puncak Niaga.
In 2008, when Selangor was taken over by federal opposition ties led by Parti Keadilan Rakyat, a plan had been drawn up to consolidate the water assets of these four actors and hand them over to the BN government.
It took more than a decade before the last of the four companies, Splash, agreed to sell its water assets – reservoirs, treatment plants, and pipeline systems – to Selangor.
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