In a statement released two days ago, National Water Services Commission (SPAN) chairman Datuk Liang Teck Meng said that he had issued an order that no water companies will be allowed to carry out anymore planed maintenance works that will cause large scale water disruptions a week before or after a major holiday celebration.
His statement is most welcomed as it shows that SPAN after having been involved in the earlier collective decision to allow Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) to proceed with maintenance works beginning Dec 19 has acknowledged the need to respect the consumers’ needs during festive season.
This is the kind of consideration that should be in the minds of decision makers when they meet to decide on maintenance works that can cause major water disruption.
Unfortunately when the parties met on Oct 31 to decide on TNB maintenance works, such consideration was lacking.
After having received public complaints, I had issued two statements on Dec 18 and Dec 19. My Dec 18 statement is titled Water disruption in Klang Valley: Call on Minister of Energy, Green Technology and Water Datuk Maximus Ongkili to step in and instruct that the TNB maintenance work be postponed to a suitable date.
And my Dec 19 statement is titled If the repairs and/or maintenance works have truly become unavoidable as claimed, then TNB must take the full blame for making an inconsiderate and wrong decision.
Yesterday the BN strategic communications team in Putrajaya said in a statement that I should not divert blame to TNB, or the BN led Federal government or imply that this is a religious issue.
The statement against me is most irresponsible as it has made baseless allegation against me.
Firstly, where in the statement did I blame the federal government? What was wrong when I called on the Minister to step in when TNB did not earlier explain the discovery of hotspots which required urgent repairs?
Secondly, where did I imply that it was a religious issue?
Thirdly, when I said TNB should take the blame, I was responding to the unsatisfactory explanations given by TNB in its public statement.
On Dec 19, it was reported in The Star that Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) explained that the water disruption was the result of a prescheduled preventive maintenance at the main intake substations belonging to TNB.
TNB had explained that a water cut was necessary as the Bukit Badong substations supplied electricity to the Sungai Selangor Water Treatment plants.
Is it therefore not true that the cause of water cuts was due to TNB’s preventive maintenance works?
I maintain that TNB has made a flawed decision and should take the full blame for getting itself into a situation where postponement became unavoidable. If TNB had gone ahead with its earlier planned date, then it certainly would not have gotten itself into a situation where maintenance works during pre Christmas season became unavoidable.
BN should look itself in the mirror when it accuses others of playing blame game or politicising the issue. Just look at the statement issued by MCA leaders and the reports by BN controlled media, and one can see how they were trying to politicize the issue.
(http://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2016/12/18/mca-postpone-scheduled-pre-xmas-water-cuts/).