Sunday 19 February 2012

Water crisis in Klang Valley by 2014: The State Gomen seeming recalcitrance in facilitating Langat 2 is worrisome

I wrote late last year on the impending Selangor Water Sypply Crisis in 2014:

Impending clean water crisis in Klang Valley by 2014: A dangerous game the Selangor Pakatan led State Government play

.... if the current Selangor State Government led by Pakatan is still playing the game of brinkmanship by refusing to allow the ongoing Langat 2 water supply project to proceed smoothly causing a delay, then they will be held responsible and accountable for the coming water crisis and the ensuing water cuts which will not just cause hardship to the ordinary Malaysian consumers but also to the Multi-billion Ringgit industries that had been set up in the Klang Valley and Selangor which totally depends on a constant supply of clean water for their operations.

Friends, do you know why we take for granted and do not think too much about the water coming out from our tap, its because we are so used to clean running water that we regard it as something that we have around us all the time like our Parents and siblings. Do you know why we are able to get a constant supply of clean water, its because the State Governments and the Federal Government had always worked hand in hand to meticulously study, plan, design, finance and construct the dams, water treatment plants and intakes and the service reservoirs and water pipes necessary for the delivery of treated clean water to our homes, offices, commercial and public buildings and industries, droughts notwithstanding. 

And friends, guest what? this process has been going on and continues to go on since before our Merdeka day. This water supply planning/ implementation process is so important that even the DAP State Government of Pulau Pinang give full cooperation to the Federal Government when it comes to water matters. Not the same can be said about the Selangor Pakatan led Government though, this is the latest what they have to say:

Krisis Bekalan Air Di Selangor Selesai 2014
"SHAH ALAM: Kerajaan Negeri Selangor memberi jaminan tidak akan berlaku krisis air menjelang 2014.

Pengerusi Jawatankuasa Tetap, Kesihatan, Pekerja, Ladang, Kemiskinan dan Kerajaan Prihatin negeri, Dr Xavier Jayakumar mendakwa, krisis air yang dibangkitkan selama ini merupakan propaganda politik kerajaan Barisan Nasional.

"Ini adalah usaha pihak tertentu untuk meracun pemikiran rakyat Selangor dalam usaha mereka untuk merampas kembali negeri ini.

"Kerajaan negeri berpendapat bahawa projek mega pemindahan air dari Pahang ke Selangor serta tindakan Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor (Syabas) memaksa kerajaan negeri meluluskan pembinaan Loji Rawatan Air Sungai Langat (Langat 2) yang menelan berbilion-bilion ringgit itu tiada tujuan lain.

"Apa yang diketahui ia hanya bertujuan memberi kontrak dan habuan keuntungan kepada syarikat-syarikat kroni yang rapat dengan mereka," katanya kepada pemberita selepas menghadiri mesyuarat Exco di Bangunan Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah di sini, Rabu.

Menurutnya, kerajaan Selangor dengan menggunakan teknologi rawatan air terkini telah mengenal pasti beberapa punca air yang telah dirawat dan boleh diguna pakai bagi menampung keperluan rakyat Selangor, Kuala Lumpur dan Putrajaya.

"Bagi menampung keperluan air kita akan mengambil air mentah dari bekas-bekas lombong yang banyak terdapat di seluruh negeri Selangor, pengambilan air bawah tanah, rawatan dan penapisan air sungai, penggunaan air hujan dan juga air mentah dari takungan hujan.

"Malah kerajaan negeri juga bersetuju dengan cadangan Persatuan Pengguna untuk memaksimumkan penggunaan sumber-sumber air tersebut untuk menampung keperluan harian rakyat Selangor," katanya.


Jelas beliau, cadangan tersebut merupakan alternatif yang lebih bermanfaat dan menjimatkan daripada projek pembangunan infrastruktur pemindahan air dari Pahang yang menelan belanja berbilion ringgit wang pembayar cukai.

Mengulas lanjut, Xavier berkata, kerajaan negeri juga sedang mempercepatkan langkah bagi merawat air sungai untuk penggunaan sektor perindustrian di Selangor.

"Bagi tujuan ini kerajaan negeri telah meluluskan lesen pemindahan air mentah kepada anak syarikat Kumpulan Darul Ehsan Berhad (KDEB), Konsortium Air Sdn Bhd yang mempunyai trek rekod dan kepakaran teknologi terkini dalam menguruskan dan merawat air.

"Sekali lagi kerajaan negeri memberi jaminan bahawa isu bekalan air tidak akan timbul malah ia mencukupi sehingga tahun 2020," ujarnya.

Justeru, beliau menegaskan bahawa kerajaan negeri akan meneruskan urus tadbir bekalan air bagi memastikan rakyat Selangor terus mendapat manfaat pemberian 20 meter padu air percuma."


Since 2008 the Pakatan led state Gomen, in their bid to retain the state, will politicise everything and anything, they now even make a preposterous promise that the water supply will  be good until 2020 (promise not backed by any verifiable statistics on treated water production and projected consumption - household & industries until 20120 or beyond) . What will they plan to do? Xavier Jayakumar said:

"Menurutnya, kerajaan Selangor dengan menggunakan teknologi rawatan air terkini telah mengenal pasti beberapa punca air yang telah dirawat dan boleh diguna pakai bagi menampung keperluan rakyat Selangor, Kuala Lumpur dan Putrajaya.

"Bagi menampung keperluan air kita akan mengambil air mentah dari bekas-bekas lombong yang banyak terdapat di seluruh negeri Selangor, pengambilan air bawah tanah, rawatan dan penapisan air sungai, penggunaan air hujan dan juga air mentah dari takungan hujan.

"Malah kerajaan negeri juga bersetuju dengan cadangan Persatuan Pengguna untuk memaksimumkan penggunaan sumber-sumber air tersebut untuk menampung keperluan harian rakyat Selangor," katanya."


Treat Ground Water and Catch rain water? How, Ground Water are not the best and not the cheapest supply for treated water and you still need multimillion dollar pumping stations and treatment plants at suitable locations to treat the ground water and you will need additional new water pipes to connect with the existing service reservoirs. Ground water pumping also lowers down the water table of the surrounding area causing other problems to the environment too it would also cause land subsidence. Read here: "The city of New Orleans, Louisiana, is actually below sea level today, and its subsidence is partly caused by removal of groundwater from the various aquifer/aquitard systems beneath it. In the first half of the 20th century, the city of San Jose, California, dropped 13 feet from land subsidence caused by overpumping; this subsidence has been halted with improved groundwater management."

The only/ best method to obtain/catch rain water in economical quantities for treatment is from the rivers and studies had shown that production of treatment plant from river off-takes in Selangor had reached almost full production, read here. Building new treatment plants as envisaged by the Selangor Pakatan led state Gomen to pump and treat water from already depleted rivers some of which are heavily polluted, are a waste of public fund, it will be an abject failure in no time. That is why after much studies the PAAB technical people had decided on the raw water transfer of water from water rich Pahang to Selangor and the raw water to be treated under the Langat 2 project. NOT because some PKR elite rumor mongers like Xavier say that it is an unnecessary project to fatten some rich cronieslah.

OK this is what the people who are in the know and concerned about Malaysia's water supply issues, particularly the Selangor water supply issue is saying:



PAGE 1

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Last page PAGE 3 read in full here 

For Xavier and the rest of the Selangor smart alec Excos and the YAB MB, please note that you are full time politicians and  are not water experts buy any stretch of any one's imagination including yours. Just leave the study, planning and implementation of highly complexed infrastructure like water supply to those who knows OK.....you knowlah the Water Engineers and Technical Professionals in PAAB The Selangor State Gomen should Stop being recalcitrant,  its going to be my life and the lives of millions of Malaysians you are mucking about with. Thank You.

Additional reading :

Reject those sweet promises

Loji Rawatan Air Sungai Langat 2 Perlu Di Bina

Malaysia faces looming water crisis 

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