SHAH ALAM, 29 Jan: In efforts to shed light on the restructuring of the water industry in Selangor, the Chief Minister, Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim, personally chaired the first briefing session at the Annex Building today.
Among others, Abdul Khalid stressed that the state government is fully prepared to implement the HORAS (Hybrid Off-River Augmentation System) project which is expected to be able to provide between 600 to 700 million litres per day of clean water.
He said that HORAS also acts as a guarantee of continued water supply while waiting for the Federal Government to enforce Section 114 of the Water Services Industry Act (WSIA) which seeks to restructure the water services industry in Selangor.
“The federal government currently does not know how to implement Section 114, but we know how.
“Therefore, we are ready to further developments and at the same time, we are prepared with certain conditions if the Langat 2 is to continue,” he said in front of people’s representatives and component parties in conjunction of the special briefing system.
Prior to this, the state government made an offer of RM9.65 billion to four concessionaires, SYABAS, ABBAS, Splash and Puncak Niaga, to acquire the water management in Selangor.
However, the offer was not agreed upon by the concessionaires who demanded a payment of RM13 billion.
“The state government needs RM1.5 billion annually to provide free water. This would mean that if we agree to their demand, we cannot implement the free water programme for six to seven years.
“This is a loss to the people, so we cannot agree to their wishes,” he said.
At the end of the briefing, he also expressed a desire to establish a dedicated call centre to provide an opportunity to the people to ask any questions regarding the restructuring plans of the water industry in Selangor.
