It is totally unacceptable that the water users served by Semenyih water treatment plant (WTP) suffered four times water disruptions in one month due to river contamination. Semenyih WTP needed to lower its production to treat more polluted river water and as a result there was not enough treated water supply to users around the area.
Lowering Semenyih WTP production affects a total of 458,350 water accounts – 135,000 at Petaling, 146,954 at Hulu Langat, 28,160 at Kuala Langat and 148,236 at Sepang. In another words, it can potentially affect the lives of about 2 millions rakyat of Selangor.
The first water disruption happened on 15 February, just a few days before Chinese New Year. It was so serious that it took more than 3 days for full recovery. The government agencies as well as the water operators should have learnt a good lesson from such major disruption and take preventive measures to ensure no reoccurrence. Unfortunately, the people had to suffer again and again – on 3 March 2015, 7 March 2015 and 20 March 2015.
We are deeply disappointed by the lackluster performance by Lembaga Urusan Air Selangor (LUAS) and Jabatan Alam Sekitar (JAS) Selangor in controlling the contamination of the river.
Yesterday, Rajiv Rishyakaran (DAP-Bukit Gasing), Dato Sulaiman bin Abdul Razak (UMNO-Pematang) and I visited Semenyih WTP to understand the situation.
I found that the source of contamination of the first disruption – Genesis Aluminium Industries Sdn Bhd, polluted the river again on 3 March 2015. JAS Selangor, as Federal Agency, has the authority under Environmental Quality Act to take action against the factory. During our last exchange, JAS Selangor has informed me that they have stopped the operation of the factory after the first disruption. I could not understand why the factory was allowed to operate again and worse still to pollute our water again! This time, no action has been taken.
With that, we call upon JAS Selangor to take immediate, serious and strict action against Genesis Aluminium Industries Sdn Bhd. They should be charged in court and face the possibility of a penalty of RM100,000 or 5 years jail or both under the law. We also call upon LUAS, the state agency, to be more proactive, in controlling contamination with the provisions given under Enakmen Lembaga Urus Air Selangor. LUAS should not rely on JAS Selangor solely in river water protection.
Beside enforcement on river contamination, we also believe that Konsortium ABBASS as the water treatment plant operator should look into steps to treat more contaminated raw water using different technologies.
All in all, we believe that a more coordinated and drastic approach is needed to overcome this challenge. The convenience of 2 millions rakyat of Selangor should never be taken lightly.
Therefore, we call upon the Menteri Besar of Selangor to step into this matter to ensure that the government agencies and water operators are made accountable to their respective scopes of work. We believe that head(s) must roll for future water disruptions. The state government must be strict and serious. For example, if LUAS or JAS Selangor cannot control the river contamination, change another persons to run the agencies until they can.
Both the state and federal agencies must work harder to deliver what is needed by the people of Selangor in water supply management – expertise, professionalism and accountability.