Assemblyman claims Selangor govt prevented Syabas from reducing non-revenue water

(Bernama) - A Selangor Barisan Nasional (BN) state assemblyman today claimed that the state government had prevented water supply company Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd (Syabas) from slashing the rate of non-revenue water (NRW) in the state since 2009.

Sulaiman Abdul Razak, the assemblyman for Permatang, alleged that the state government had frozen Syabas' capital expenditure (capex), rendering it unable to implement maintenance work to reduce NRW.

"As such, the state government cannot blame Syabas for the failure to reduce NRW; it should assume the blame itself," he told a news conference at the lobby of the Selangor State Legislative Assembly, here.

In the house earlier, when replying to a question from Datuk Dr Karim Mansor (BN-Tanjung Sepat), Menteri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim said that an agreement among Syabas, the state government and the federal government required the water concessionaire to reduce the rate of NRW to 27 per cent in 2009, 19 per cent in 2012 and 15 per cent in 2015.

"The rate of NRW in 2012 is 32.6 per cent. It is clear that Syabas did not focus on water resources management," Abdul Khalid said. There was a tense moment in the assembly when Abdul Khalid accused Sulaiman of being a Syabas agent when the latter sought an explanation on the NRW issue in Selangor.