The water supply in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya is insufficient to fulfil the rising demand of consumers.
Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd (Syabas) CEO Datuk Ruslan Hassan said the water supply capacity in the three states was 4,326 million litres per day (MLD) with the average production between June 1 and July 11, at 4,086 MLD.
“This shows that the reserve capacity is only 240 MLD or 5.9%,” he said in a statement yesterday.
With the increase of 4% in demand over the first six months this year, the water supply reserve would continue to drop and become critical, said Ruslan.
“This is very worrying, especially if there is a serious drought or if the raw water supply in the water catchment area or rivers is badly polluted, which can cause the water treatment plants to be closed,” he said.
Ruslan was commenting on Selangor Menteri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim’s remarks on Tuesday that water supply in the state was sufficient until 2019.
Ruslan said Syabas had, and was still facing difficulties to fulfil the demand for water, especially after a disruption, due to the low reserve capacity.
He said several water treatment plants had also been forced to operate non-stop, beyond their original capacities over the past few years to meet consumer needs.
These included the Sungai Langat water treatment plant which had been operating at 450 MLD, despite its original capacity of 386 MLD, and the Semenyih water treatment plant which was operating at 580-620 MLD despite its capacity of 565 MLD.
“Hence, the water treatment plants could hardly undergo maintenance works on time, for fear the water supply would be disrupted,” said Ruslan. — Bernama
This article appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, July 22, 2010.
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