KUALA LUMPUR: Consumer organisation's want to see major changes and drastic improvements in the existing laws and policies, introduction of strong enforcement and enhancement of existing penalty against those who pollute raw water.
Federation of Malaysian Consumers Associations (Fomca) Datuk Dr Marimuthu Nadason said raw water pollution issue was nothing new for consumers in Klang valley, as for almost three decades, consumers had been dealing with water cuts due to pollution and also prolonged drought.
He said based on data from Suruhanjaya Perkhidmatan Air Negara (SPAN) in 2019 water treatment plants were shut down more than 300 times, mainly in Peninsular Malaysia solely due to pollution.
Many consumer organisations and environment organisations have raised this issue through many channels over the years but fell on deaf ears as the problem still occurs.
He said although there are many government agencies looking after the water resources, the perpetrators or polluters conveniently find ways to discharge chemical and toxic waste into our rivers.
"It is time for all government agencies including the ruling and opposition government to tackle this serious issue immediately", he said.
For example, with the advancement of technology, he said smart water sensors should be installed at all major rivers and output ducts of companies.
Smart water sensors would be able to monitor water conditions in real-time allowing authorities to take immediate action thus avoiding the need of halting water supplies, he said.
Marimuthu said a strong taskforce supported by a new law also needed to be gazetted to protect the nation's natural resources.
"All the existing industries near the water sources should be checked and recorded. An EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) study on each factory should be made mandatory," he said .
He said many factories and industries near the water sources have been operating for number of years. With an EIA study, authorities can foresee what are the problems and the government can make necessary interventions to overcome such problems.
"It is not the right time for blaming game.
"We, from the consumer organisation would like to see major changes and drastic improvements in term of effective laws and policy, strong enforcement and heavier penalty and hefty fines imposed on the culprits to deter from committing the dreadful act again," he said in a statement today.
Marimuthu said compliance with environmental regulations usually requires the expenditure of significantly increased overhead for businesses.
"In an attempt to avoid these additional costs, some businesses will refuse to comply with the regulations. Sometimes, businesses openly refuse to comply and will pay governmental fines rather than pay the compliance costs, which surpass the total costs of the fines.
"At the same time, we also would like to see major improvement taking place in water industries in Malaysia.
"Sad to say, our water industry is often used as a political agenda. We need to stop politicising water issues and move on to improve our water accessibility to public," he said.
Marimuthu also revealed that Selangor's reserve margin for water at the moment was way too low and as such there was a need to find ways om how to increase the reserve margin.
"We should use the Langat 2 Water Treatment Plant that has increased its water margin from 3 per cent to 10 per cent in 2020.
He said there was also a need to empower residents near rivers to become the "eyes" for the enforcement agencies.
"Selected community leaders and volunteers can be trained and supported by the government.
"Awareness needs to be created so that public would know the importance of our water source and the negative impact if we keep on polluting it.
"The sustainability of our water resources is in jeopardy and if this pollution issue is not addressed immediately, we will definitely have a major water crisis in the near future.
"This crisis can cripple our economy, stability of the country and also cause big impact to consumers such as accessibility of clean and quality water for daily consumption," Marimuthu said.