Does the water crisis of the last few days show the need for the introduction of an EO, or Enforcement Ordinance to deal with enforcement agencies which fail to carry out their function of protecting essential services such as water supply as well as our environment?
This mocking rhetorical question should not be lost on Malaysians since the government is trying to bring back the Emergency Ordinance, which allows detention without trial because of its failure to deal with criminals.
The analogy is not inconsequential since it exposes the political will and the abject failure of our enforcement agencies and the police in carrying out their job despite the ample arsenal in our statute books to deal with illegal operators and other criminals.
Corruption is a prime suspect in all these cases of overseeing illegal activities.
In the latest crisis, diesel spill had resulted in the closure of water treatment plants of Sungai Selangor phase one, two, and three as well as the Rantau Panjang water treatment plant, affecting water supply to Petaling, Kuala Lumpur, Gombak, Kuala Selangor, Hulu Selangor and Kuala Langat.
On January 15 this year, the raw water supply in Sungai Semenyih was polluted because an operator had discharged foul-smelling waste into the river, an act that forced operators Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor (Syabas) to close down the Sungai Semenyih water treatment plant for almost seven hours.
The environment minister told a press conference, "We cannot afford to have incidents of this nature. We need to try our best to enforce (the law), and keep pollutants out of our water supply."
The Sungai Semenyih plant had to be closed from 1pm to 8pm on Monday after pollutants were discovered in the raw water supply.
Although the plant was fully operational after seven hours, continued use of water during the shutdown period had emptied out the reservoirs in Bangi, Kajang, Sungai Chua and Semenyih, with disruptions expected to last up to seven days in some areas.
In the latest crisis, diesel spill had resulted in the closure of water treatment plants of Sungai Selangor phase one, two, and three as well as the Rantau Panjang water treatment plant, affecting water supply to Petaling, Kuala Lumpur, Gombak, Kuala Selangor, Hulu Selangor and Kuala Langat.On January 15 this year, the raw water supply in Sungai Semenyih was polluted because an operator had discharged foul-smelling waste into the river, an act that forced operators Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor (Syabas) to close down the Sungai Semenyih water treatment plant for almost seven hours.
The environment minister told a press conference, "We cannot afford to have incidents of this nature. We need to try our best to enforce (the law), and keep pollutants out of our water supply."
The Sungai Semenyih plant had to be closed from 1pm to 8pm on Monday after pollutants were discovered in the raw water supply.
Although the plant was fully operational after seven hours, continued use of water during the shutdown period had emptied out the reservoirs in Bangi, Kajang, Sungai Chua and Semenyih, with disruptions expected to last up to seven days in some areas.
High level of contaminants
Up to April 2012, there had been at least 13 incidents where water treatment plants had to be shut down for several hours due to the high level of contaminants in the water caused by pollution of the main rivers in Selangor, particularly the Semenyih and Langat rivers. (NST, Nov 3, 2012).
According to the National Water Services Commission (Span), the contaminants in the rivers were mainly effluents from industrial activities; poultry farm waste, oil spill and sand mining.
How come the enforcement agencies are blind to these concrete elephants operating in the vicinity of these essential service areas?
The government is concerned about our essential services enough to ban workers in these services from taking industrial action but somehow is so lax when it comes to illegal operators who pour diesel into the source of our drinking water!
The reporting of the latest crisis also shows the lack of transparency in informing the public about the truth of the situation.
When the crisis first broke out, Bernama reported that it had been caused by a tanker that had overturned, spilling the diesel it was carrying into Sungai Selangor.
It was later reported that the diesel spill had come from a company in an industrial area near Sungai Gong that had a contract to clean trucks, including garbage trucks, and the company had dumped the diesel into a drain, at the river source.
As in past cases, the authorities do not bring the enforcement agencies to account for their negligence but are wise after the event.
It has been reported that the factory in question had already been compounded 14 times for some RM34,000 but the right question of the factory's existence at the source of the Selangor river itself seems to have escaped the local authorities, department of environment, the state government and the police.
The existence of these illegal operators in the vicinity of the Sungai Selangor had been pointed out to the government officers when the Ministry of Finance facilitated a dialogue with NGO activists opposing the Selangor River dam more than 10 years ago!
Consequently, this gross failure by the enforcement agencies and the police to tackle such criminal activities will be raised if the government tries to justify any legislation that allows detention without trial.
How come the enforcement agencies are blind to these concrete elephants operating in the vicinity of these essential service areas?
The government is concerned about our essential services enough to ban workers in these services from taking industrial action but somehow is so lax when it comes to illegal operators who pour diesel into the source of our drinking water!
The reporting of the latest crisis also shows the lack of transparency in informing the public about the truth of the situation.
When the crisis first broke out, Bernama reported that it had been caused by a tanker that had overturned, spilling the diesel it was carrying into Sungai Selangor.
It was later reported that the diesel spill had come from a company in an industrial area near Sungai Gong that had a contract to clean trucks, including garbage trucks, and the company had dumped the diesel into a drain, at the river source.
As in past cases, the authorities do not bring the enforcement agencies to account for their negligence but are wise after the event.
It has been reported that the factory in question had already been compounded 14 times for some RM34,000 but the right question of the factory's existence at the source of the Selangor river itself seems to have escaped the local authorities, department of environment, the state government and the police.
The existence of these illegal operators in the vicinity of the Sungai Selangor had been pointed out to the government officers when the Ministry of Finance facilitated a dialogue with NGO activists opposing the Selangor River dam more than 10 years ago!
Consequently, this gross failure by the enforcement agencies and the police to tackle such criminal activities will be raised if the government tries to justify any legislation that allows detention without trial.
DR KUA KIA SOONG is adviser to Suaram.
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