Some progress in Selangor-Putrajaya water deadlock

The Selangor government will seek to include the Langat 2 water treatment plant project as part of ongoing negotiations with Putrajaya on the state's water restructuring exercise.

This follows the cabinet's agreement to hold negotiations with Selangor over the acquisition of the state's four water assets, on condition that the state gave the green light for Langat 2.

"The state government has stated (that) it (Langat 2) should be part of the restructuring. That means when we restructure the water operation in Selangor, Langat 2 is included in this restructuring process. 

"That means Langat 2 will be regarded as operational in this exercise,” Khalid (left in photo) told reporters after the state exco meeting today.

Since Pakatan Rakyat tookover Selangor in 2008, they had sought to acquire four companies involved in water supply works and stymy the Langat 2 project.

Selangor had argued that the four companies must be acquired and restructured first before being handed to Putrajaya as required by the Water Services Industry Act 2006 to ensure low water tariff rates.

Until the acquisition is completed, Selangor had vowed not to budge on Langat 2, an expensive project to treat water chanelled from an underground tunnel connected to Pahang.

Khalid said that both the federal and state governments had initiated the process of exchanging terms this week with very few differences remaining. 

“We have initiated that, and we had sent in some of our ‘wish list’ and got those from the (Energy, Green Technology and Water) Ministry and we are waiting for the time that we will get together in a face-to-face discussion,” he added.

Freeze on activities at river reserves

Meanwhile, Khalid announced that the state government has directed all local governments to freeze all applications for activities at its river reserves. 

Khalid said that this was to prevent a recurrence of the diesel spill incident at Sungai Selangor last week, which caused water disruption in large parts of the state. 

According to Khalid, the activities include temporary factories, food processing and livestock rearing activities. 

“The local governments are also ordered to monitor the activities at river reserves, especially those which are unlicensed,” he added. 

Khalid opined that enforcement of the environmental laws needs to be improved since cases of environmental pollution due to negligence happen frequently. 

“Thus, we suggest that the federal government, particularly the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry, to exercise the principles of the Environmental Quality Act 1974 where the costs of damage and repairs caused by pollution will be fully borne by the responsible individual or companies,” he said.