‘Raw water license to be revoked’

The Selangor Water Management Authority is directed to issue a raw water license to the state-owned Kumpulan Dahrul Ehsan instead of Puncak Niaga

PETALING JAYA: The Selangor government will terminate the raw water licenses given to Puncak Niaga Holdings Berhad, following the announcement of a joint takeover bid of four Selangor water concessionaires with the federal government

The state government has directed the Selangor Water Management Authority to issue a raw water license to the state-owned Kumpulan Dahrul Ehsan, in replacement of Puncak Niaga, said Menteri Besar Khalid Ibrahim in a statement yesterday.

A government source told FMT that following the termination, Puncak Niaga can no longer extract raw water from the state.

However, it can still supply treated water because that license was issued by the federal-owned National Water Services Commission.

Last Wednesday, Khalid announced that the state and federal government would be jointly taking over the four companies by invoking Section 114 of the Water Services Industry Act 2006.

This followed the expiring of negotiation period on Dec 31, 2013 and the four companies’ refusal to accept a takeover bid worth RM9.65 billion.

Meanwhile, Khalid said he has instructed the Selangor water regulator Mohamad Roslan Sakiman to kick-start a storm water reservoir project called Hybrid Off River Augmentation System (Horas) in the mean time.

He said this is to serve as alternative to the proposed Langat 2 Water Treatment Plant, a federal initiative which was finally approved by the state last week.

He said the Horas project which would be built in Sungai Selangor is capable of supplying 600 to 700 million liters of clean water daily.

“This system involves the collection of storm water from Sungai Selangor at the old mines in Bestari Jaya.

“Based on the Bestari Jaya Barrage overflow data, there is sufficient storm water in Sungai Selangor when there is excess from the use of the plants there.

“The collection is estimated to be sufficient for four months without any flow from Sungai Selangor during the mid-year dry season,” he said.