SHAH ALAM, 24 Feb: The Selangor Government will reduce the water discharge into the four water treatment plants starting tomorrow, leading to water rationing in the Klang Valley area.
The Chief Minister, Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim, said the reduction of water from the Sungai Selangor Dam will affect the Sungai Rasa, Selangor River 1, 2 and 3 water treatment plants.
He added that this would cause a disruption in water supply for consumers who obtain their water supply from those plants.
“Scheduled water distribution should have been carried out by Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor Sdn. Bhd. (SYABAS), the water concessionaire, last week during the Emergency Response Plan and advice consumers to be prepared by planning ahead.
“However, SYABAS failed to submit a water distribution schedule plan until now. The State Government was informed that SYABAS refused to do so and wants to hand the responsibility to the State Government,” Abdul Khalid said in a media statement.
Abdul Khalid said the State Government has directed the Economic Planning Unit (UPEN) and the National Water Services Commission (SPAN) to start talks to once again, allowing the State Government to ‘step into’ SYABAS water management.
He said the water rationing due to the reduction of water discharged into the dam is expected to last until the end of March, if the hot weather continues, as predicted by the Malaysian Meteorological Department.
“All local authorities (PBT) have been directed to be proactive in helping the public affected while the local investment authorities must ensure that the water rationing has minimal impact on the manufacturing industries” said Abdul Khalid.
He explained that the water discharge reduction will be implemented in four stages; stage one with 7% reduction, stage two with 10%, stage 3 with 15% and stage four with 20% reduction.
“This measure has to be taken to ensure the water stored in the dam can hold up to the end of March 2014,” he said.
Abdul Khalid said the Lembaga Urus Air Selangor (LUAS) reported that the raw water supply in Selangor has reached a critical condition and is causing the water level in several dams to decrease to the warning level.
“Meanwhile, cloud seeding will be done at the right time to produce rain.
“The Selangor State Government will provide the latest updates from time to time and hope that people will be prudent in using water,” he said.
