KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Water Forum (FAM) today said Air Selangor, the state Local Government, and Ministry of Water, Energy and Natural Resources should work together to curb cases of water supply contamination and mitigation to prevent future unscheduled water cuts.
Its president, Sarl James Maniam said the water cut was the fourth such incident this year, depriving consumers of their basic right to clean and safe water.
Selangor residents were on Saturday affected by water cuts following the closure of a Semenyih river treatment plant due to pollution.
Air Selangor on its website said the source of the contamination was traced to a sewage treatment facility in Bandar Mahkota, and it had notified the relevant authorities to take immediate action to curb the contamination.
"If there were lessons learnt by the relevant authorities and organizations from previous incidents, then why was our water supply contaminated again after 41 days? This affected 372,031 users in Petaling District, Hulu Langat, Kuala Langat and Sepang,” said Maniam.
To date, he said the public has not been informed of the root-cause nor action taken to mitigate and prevent future incidents following the unscheduled water cuts which affected parts of Selangor earlier in July 19.
Then 1,133 areas with 1,166,842 accounts were affected when it was reported that the odour pollution caused by an oil-based waste discharged into Sungai Selangor led to the total closure of the three Sungai Selangor Water Treatment Plants – (Sungai Selangor Phase 1 Water Treatment Plant, SSP 2 WTP and SSP 3 WTP).
Maniam said reducing unscheduled water cuts must be a responsibility shared by the government, industries, businesses, communities and individuals.
"Most water contamination incidents are due to the lack of policing of industry and business activities by the local government and Department of Environment."
He said though communities and individuals are able to report on illegal dumping activities during the day, most waste is dumped undetected at night.
"FAM requests that Air Selangor, SPAN and KATS immediately put in place buffer zones, and areas of land designated for environmental protection from all contamination prone areas.
“They must be protected from all types of activities that may affect the quality of water.
“Based on SPAN’s 2018 Annual Report, Selangor experienced 11,781 unscheduled water cuts compared to 767 scheduled cuts," said Maniam.
Maniam said polluted water was unsuitable for drinking, recreation, agriculture and industries. It diminishes the aesthetic quality of lakes and rivers, destroys aquatic life and is a hazard to human health and the environment.
He added that consumers should be educated on the dangers of drinking contaminated water and to be exposed to methods of water treatment providing safer drinking water for their communities and customers.