Residents of Klang Valley, brace yourselves for more water cuts!
Malaysians living in the Klang Valley might’ve experienced a sudden water cut last Friday (19th July) due to odour pollution in the water treatment plants in Sungai Selangor.
Today (22nd July), it was announced that this water cut will be prolonged as Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd (Syabas) revealed that diesel pollution was found in Sungai Selangor, leading to the shutdowns of four water treatment plants on Sunday (21st July).
Did you experience any sudden water cuts yesterday?
Source: The Star
According to The Star, Air Selangor Customer Relation and Communication Department head Abdul Raof Ahmad said that Sungai Selangor Phase 1, 2 and 3 Water Treatment Plants and the Rantau Panjang Water Treatment Plant were forced to shut down as diesel was detected in the raw waters of Sungai Selangor.
“Rantau Panjang plant was shut down at 6pm while the three phases of SSP were shut down between 8pm and 8.15pm,” he said.
Syabas reported this to the authorities after detecting that the source of the pollution came from sand digging activities at the upper reaches of the river, according to Malay Mail.
“This is the second incident within three days involving the closure of all four major water treatment plants and causing large scale water supply disruption to the customers,” he said.
“We are working as fast as we can but we are unable to ascertain the restoration period should the raw water pollution incident recur.”
“We are on standby to face any similar incidents as what has happened today.”
He also mentioned that the list of affected areas is the same as previously listed.
Source: Sinar Harian
It was announced last week that there will be water cuts lasting two to four days in major cities like Petaling Jaya, Kuala Lumpur and Shah Alam starting 23 July. However, this had to be postponed following an announcement of an unexpected water cut on Friday (19th July) due to the temporary closure of Phases 1,2, and 3 of the Sungai Selangor Water Treatment Plant due to odour pollution.
This affected a total of 1,133 areas in the Klang Valley which involved 1,166,842 customer accounts in Kuala Lumpur, Petaling, Klang/Shah Alam, Kuala Selangor, Hulu Selangor, Gombak and Kuala Langat
Meanwhile, consumers are urged to keep updated on current and future water-related events on the Air Selangor app, www.syabas.com.my, and Air Selangor Facebook and Twitter accounts.
Update:
The National Water Services Commission (Span) has lodged a police report at the Bestari Jaya police station in Kuala Selangor today (22nd July) on the odour pollution and diesel pollution in Sungai Selangor. Chairman Charles Santiago said that they want to investigate if there are any elements of sabotage following these incidents.
He added that it is a crime under Section 121 of the Water Services Industry Act, 2006 to cause the contamination of water, reported The Star.
“We will use the existing Acts to take stern action against those who caused the contamination,” he said.
This doesn’t look good! Hopefully Syabas and the authorities will be able to get to the root of the problem and that there will be no further unexpected water cuts. Meanwhile, it’s advisable to store up water whenever you have the chance as you never know when the next water cut will be during this period.
Also read: Syabas: These Areas in Klang Valley Will Experience Earlier Water Cuts Starting 19th July
