LETTERS: Frequent water supply cuts in the Klang Valley, with the recent one impacting more than 1.2 million water
account holders, are causing much frustration and hardship to the people.
This disruption was unscheduled following action to stop the operations of Sungai Selangor water treatment plants as a result of pollution caused by a factory at the raw water source.
While Pengurusan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd (Air Selangor) should be lauded for acting swiftly in detecting the pollution and flushing out the contaminated water before supply could resume, long-term and short-term solutions are essential to resolve the root cause of the problem.
Managing river protection and pollution control are substantially complex as they involve multitude of actions by different authorities and organisations, through different laws, at the federal, state and local government levels.
Rivers are the main sources of water supply. However, pollution is a major threat to river water quality and adequate water supply. Rivers can be polluted due to discharge from industrial, agricultural and development activities, as well commercial and household releases.
The laws to regulate aspects of river pollution include the Environmental Quality Act 1974, Water Services Industry Act 2006, Local Government Act 1976 and the Penal Code, as well as state legislation such as the Selangor Waters Management Authority Enactment 1999.
However, main concerns of the law relate to strictness of penalty, and effectiveness of enforcement and monitoring. The fact that the factory in question was issued a RM60,000 compound for the same offence indicates that compound alone is not sufficient to ensure compliance and deter pollution.
Penalty needs to be made more stringent to commensurate with severity of offences, including mandatory jail sentence or even caning.
The law must empower the regulators to stop factories from production or put them out of business if found liable for severe pollution. The law should include provisions on environmental risks, including disruption risk and public health risk caused by industrial clusters along rivers.
The laws should have provisions relating to accidental pollution and contingency plan on emergencies such as water supply cut. Safeguarding measures, including a warning system, should be established in downstream areas, particularly the water intakes that will be directly impacted by
pollution incidents.
The zoning of industries is another key factor to reduce risks of pollution from industries affecting water intakes. While structure plans, local plans and related planning law provide for zoning of industrial areas, they need to be more definitive, including locating polluting industries within the downstream areas of a river basin.
In this way, the upper reaches of the river system can be protected from major industrial pollution within the lower reaches of the river system.
Legislations are only as good as their enforcement. Effective execution of the law is crucial to ensure compliance and prosecution.
On the part of pollution victims, it is necessary that tort law and procedural rule are revised to facilitate both private and class actions, and to overcome barriers such as the difficulty in proving causation and the requirement of legal standing.
As our rivers continue to face pollution threats, solution to the problems needs to be found immediately. Otherwise, the public may endure another major water disruption in the near future.
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR DR MAIZATUN MUSTAFA
Legal Practice Department, Ahmad Ibrahim Kulliyyah of Laws, International Islamic University Malaysia
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times