SHAH ALAM, 26 Feb: Claims by the Selangor Water Supply Company (Syabas) that the rescheduling plan for water supply has supposedly been presented is not true at all, stressed the Chief Minister.
Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim said that Syabas instead failed to present it at four meetings with the Selangor State Water Supply Monitoring Committee, which were held separately.
He said that talks about preparations on the proposal to implement the water distribution scheduling have been done with Syabas since 18 February.
“The committee asked for Syabas to present the plan at the Selangor Economic Action Council (MTES) meeting on 20 February, 2014.
“The Selangor Government again ordered Syabas to provide the water distribution scheduling plan to be presented on 21 February, but Syabas still failed to do so. And on 24 February, Syabas failed to do so again,” he said in a statement last night.
Yesterday, Syabas, in a press conference, claimed that the water supply rescheduling plan was prepared as soon as Khalid issued the emergency response directive for areas affected on Friday.
The Technical Executive Director of the Syabas Water Concessionaire, V Subramaniam, also claimed that the plan prepared was only approved by the State Water Services Commission (SPAN) yesterday.
However, Abdul Khalid, in a statement, criticised Syabas’ actions of using SPAN as an excuse and deemed it to be absurd, ridiculous and unacceptable because it involves public interest.
“The State Government needs to implement a reduction in the release of water from dams to ensure that consumers receive water supply, despite it being intermittent until the end of March.
“The drop in the water level of dams due to monsoon changes has caused prolonged hot weather and this condition is also being experienced in other states,” he added.
In this regard, he urged Syabas to carry out their responsibility as a concessionaire by immediately preparing a water distribution scheduling plan without giving any more excuses.
“The State Government would like to emphasise that the situation this time is different than what happened on 15 July 2012, when Syabas announced water rationing in the Klang Valley without receiving consent from the State Government or the Syabas Board of Directors at the time,” he said.
