SHAH ALAM, 10 Jan: Today, over 50 residents around Pandan gathered at Wisma Rozali here to urge the Selangor Water Supply Company (SYABAS – Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor) to restore the water supply in areas that have been experiencing disruptions since two weeks ago.
The residents, together with non-governmental organisation (NGO) Hak Air Untuk Rakyat (Hayat) began gathering at Wisma Rizali at 12 noon to hand over a memorandum to the Chief Executive Officer, Tan Sri Rozali Ismail.
They also carried banners, among them stated “Syabas terbabas’, ‘Syabas tidak boleh harap’ (Syabas cannot be trusted), ‘kembalikan hak rakyat’ (restore the rights of the people) and ‘disebabkan Syabas anak kami tidak ke sekolah’ (because of Syabas, our children did not go to school) as well as ‘disebabkan Syabas peniaga tidak dapat berniaga’ (because of Syabas, traders cannot trade).
Hayat Chairman, Arshad Ahmad said that most of the people around Ampang are not satisfied with Syabas for not carrying out its duties well.
He said that Syabas is seen as trying to politicise the water issue in the interest of others and blaming the State Government.
“Residents are disappointed with what is happening, Syabas should not have evoked the outrage of the people.
“We also urge Syabas to hand over the water management to the State Government,” he said.
To make matters worse, Arshad claimed that Syabas sent water trucks to the residents only once in the past two weeks.
He added that residents will not hesitate to sue Syabas should the water supply not be restored immediately.
Resident Lee Shok Jing, 32, said that residents cannot accept the reasons given by Syabas as it is already the responsibility of the company to plan and make preparations so that residents get water without interruption.
“The water supply which was cut off is causing the residents to quarrel among themselves, for example, yesterday, residents were stressed out until they fought among themselves to get the water which was delivered, we do not want this to continue,” said Lee.
The memorandum was received by the Syabas representative, Executive Director Ismail Hashim.
Previously, the water supply problem was allegedly caused by five water pumps in Wangsa Maju that broke down, causing several areas to incur water supply outages, among them were areas around Ampang and Cheras.
