SHAH ALAM, 3 Mar: The Coordinator of the Coalition Against Water Privatisation (CAWP), Charles Santiago, is urging the Minister of Energy, Green Technology and Water, Datuk Seri Maximus Ongkili to reveal the contents of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the water industry restructuring in Selangor which was signed on 26 February to the public.
Charles said that the call was made via a letter sent to Ongkili on 2 March, and until now, no response has been received from the minister.
“Five days after the Mou was signed, the people of Malaysia, especially in Selangor, have yet to be explained on what is at stake for them, what has been agreed upon, including the cost implications. Furthermore, media analysis and comments from the public are confused on the MoU.
“I asked Ongkili to reveal to the public about the Selangor water restructuring MoU as this issue involves the importance of good governance, transparency and accountability,” he said in a press statement today.
Charles who is also the Member of Parliament for Klang, also urged Ongkili to clarify if the MoU signed, witnessed by the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, and the Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, was classified under the Official Secrets Act (OSA) 1972.
On 26 February, the Selangor Government, represented by the Chief Minister, Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim, and the Federal Government, represented by Ongkili, signed the Selangor water industry restructuring MoU while being witnessed by Najib and Muhyiddin in Putrajaya.
Among the main content of the MoU is that the Federal Government will inject RM2 billion to help the state government in the acquisition of the Selangor water concessionaires shares and in return, Selangor will issue the planning permission for the construction of the Langat 2 Water Treatment Plant and Distribution System (LRAL2).
While waiting for the Langat 2 to be completed, the Selangor Government will also implement three primary responsibilities to ensure that there is adequate supply of clean water by carrying out the mitigation programme worth RM900 million provided by the Federal Government.
In addition, the start of the Horas (Hybrid Off River Augmentation System) project in Sungai Selangor which is capable of supplying from 600 to 700 million litres a day of clean water or three billion litres in 2050 and the ground-breaking ceremony will be held within two weeks from now.
The final responsibility is the lower the percentage of non-revenue water (NRW) from 33 percent to a lower level in six months because the high percentage of NRW failed to be brought down by SYABAS is the main reason why clean water supply is not adequate.
