Pakatan ruled Selangor is worse than PAS ruled Kelantan.
At least in Kelantan, water supply is consistent and constant albeit the water quality is bad.
But in Selangor, supposedly the richest state in the country, frequent water disruption in PJ and Klang Valley is becoming once too often.
On 26 Sept 2023, Air Selangor announced scheduled water supply disruptions in Petaling, Kuala Lumpur and Hulu Langat due to asset upgrading and maintenance works at the Sungai Langat Water Treatment Plant (Sg Langat WTP) on Oct 10 from 9am to 7pm with water supply expected to fully recover at 12pm on Oct 12, 2023.
Water disruptions in Selangor are increasingly becoming a problem, often leaving millions of households high and dry for several days to even a week with notice issued only at the last minute causing inconveniences to businesses and industries reliant on steady water supply.
Excuses given ranged from burst pipes to river streams being polluted with solvents.
On 22 Sept 2016, Syabas shut down the Sungai Semenyih Water Treatment Plant after detecting pollution in its raw water supply.
On 4 Nov 2017, Syabas announced that supply to several areas in Klang, Shah Alam, Kuala Langat and Kuala Selangor would be disrupted.
On 2 March 2018, Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd (Syabas) Air Selangor’s predecessor announced that they are shutting down the Sungai Selangor Phase 3 Water Treatment Plant (SSP3) for much-needed repair work.
On 18 April 2019, SPAN sent out a warning that 4.14 million people will be affected by water supply disruptions for up to four days from 24 Apr 2019, due to the shutdown of the Selangor River Phase 2 Water Treatment Plant for upgrading works.
3 months later, Klang Valley residents were again notified of a scheduled water disruption from 23 July 2019 to 26 July 2019 due to much needed upgrading works at the Sungai Selangor Phase 1 (SSP1) Water Treatment Plant, which was to be carried out during the four-day period.
The upgrading works, however, were postponed after odour pollution was detected at the Phases 1, 2 and 3 of the Sungai Selangor Water Treatment Plant and the Rantau Panjang Water Treatment Plant on 19 July 2019.
On 22 Dec 2019, 5 months later, Air Selangor announced the complete shutdown of the Sungai Semenyih water treatment plant due to another odour pollution, traced to the illegal disposal of waste
In 2020 alone, water disruptions happened 8 times.
Even though repairs and supply generally resumed inside 24 hours after the disruption, the frequency of it is very disruptive especially for businesses.
- 7 Feb 2020 - 57 areas in Gombak faced water disruption due to a burst pipe at the Hulu Kelang pump house
- 17 Mac 2020 - Water treatment plants in Sungai Selangor (LRA) Phase 1 (SSP1), Phase 2 (SSP2), Phase 3 (SSP3) and Rantau Panjang were forced to halt operations after odour pollution was detected at the raw water intake source in Sungai Selangor
- 16 April 2023 - Another round of odour pollution resulted in the Sungai Selangor Water Treatment Plant (WTP), Phase 1 (SSP1), Phase 2 (SSP2) and Phase 3 (SSP3) shutting down, affecting 1.2 million users in KL, Petaling, Klang, Shah Alam, Kuala Selangor, Hulu Selangor, Gombak and Kuala Langat.
- 11 June 2023 - A water pipe near Jalan Langat in Klang burst, affecting the areas of Bandar Bistari and Batu 5 and 6
- 14 July 2023 - Almost 300 areas were affected by a scheduled water disruption due to repair and improvement works to the Sungai Selangor Phase 3 Water Treatment Plant
- 11 August 2023 - 20 areas in Gombak faced another round of water disruption, this time due to scheduled upgrading and replacement of critical assets at the Sungai Gombak Water Treatment Plant
- 3 September 2023 - 1,292 areas in the Klang Valley, Petaling, Klang/Shah Alam, Kuala Selangor, Hulu Selangor, Gombak and Kuala Langat experienced an unscheduled water supply disruption, following the halting of operations the water treatment plants in Sungai Selangor Phases 1, 2, 3 and Rantau Panjang, due to odour pollution that was later identified to have come from a factory in Rawang
- 4 October 2023 - The water treatment plants in Semenyih and Bukit Tampoi ceased operations at 4.30pm, leaving 274 areas in Petaling, Hulu Langat, Kuala Langat and Sepang without water. The cause was attributed to odour pollution said to have originated from the Nilai Industrial Estate in Negri Sembilan, which entered Sungai Semenyih from Sungai Batang Benar
Long periods of water disruption may affect the economy, cause epidemics, and generally be a great pain in the tushy.
I live in Selangor and having no water is like second nature for me for the last few years.
According to Malaysia’s Water Association‘s report, in 2016, 49.5% of all water supply issues in Malaysia was reported in Selangor, and in 2017 the number rose to 62.4%.
So when PM10 asked Kelantanese why states like Selangor have better development compared to Kelantan, Selangorians similarly is asking PM10 what is so great about Selangor who despite being touted the richest and most industrialized state in the whole of Malaysia but holds the record of the state with the most disruption to its water supplies.
With the rate it is going i.e increasing frequency of disruption in supply, Selangorians will no longer be surprised that one day in future, quality of the water in Selangor will be ranked on par with those in Kelantan.
Before it reach that level, Selangorians might be asking why not vote for PAS in governing Selangor? Water quality might be bad but at least supply is not disrupted as frequently as now if the state is to be governed by them.
FLK is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
The User Content (as defined on Newswav Terms of Use) above including the views expressed and media (pictures, videos, citations etc) were submitted & posted by the author. Newswav is solely an aggregation platform that hosts the User Content. If you have any questions about the content, copyright or other issues of the work, please contact Newswav.
