An end to Selangor’s water woes?
Selangor water problems have been a constant issue in the state. This year alone, there are 9 water disruptions to the state, seven of it caused by water pollution.
Ir, Balachandran Naicker, a member of Rukun Tetangga Subang Jaya has proposed a few ways that Lembaga Urus Air Selangor (LUAS) can implement to eradicate pollution, although this may take some time for the residents to see results.
Most of the causes for the water supply outages stemmed from pollution upstream of the raw water intake and raw water management falls under the jurisdiction of LUAS and Jabatan Alam Sekitar (JAS).
According to Balachandran, it is important to consider that there are no sources of pollution upstream of the intake before making the decision to site any raw water intake for public water supply.
“Some of the steps to eliminate the risk of water pollution would include demarking the entire catchment area of Water Treatment Plants (WTP) and surveying all occupiers of the land within the catchment areas,”
“They should also evict all illegal occupiers while also gazetting the catchment areas with a restriction on pollution-causing activities.” He said.
Balachandran added that high-risk occupiers should move out of the catchment area in addition to developing a classification of the legal land occupiers from no risk to high risk.
While YB Michelle Ng, Adun for Subang Jaya had in the recent sitting of the Selangor State Assembly tabled enactments which would see heavy punishments for polluters, however, the efficacy of these new enactments is very much dependent on the enforcement of the legislation by LUAS and JAS.
“Is LUAS and JAS up to it? Only time will tell. In the meantime, pollutions will continue and Selangor residents will have to bear the cost.” Balachandran added.
In 2020, most of the water disruptions in Selangor are due to pollution, which affects more than millions of consumers in the state. According to reports by Malay Mail, the Selangor state government has taken steps to take factory operators involved in polluting the rivers to court.
“A factory in Kundang, Rawang which is owned by an association chairman has been charged in court for committing pollution. If it was carried out by an unlicensed factory, we will order it to be closed as happened to a factory in Sungai Gong.” Selangor Menteri Besar, Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari was quoted saying.