He says Putrajaya is only willing to pay 60% of cost and says if Selangor pays remaining 40%, it will burden people.
Santiago says the federal government is delaying the loan approval to allow Selangor’s takeover of Splash.
KUALA LUMPUR: An opposition MP has questioned the federal government and a water regulator over the water shortage that struck Selangor last week.
During a press conference today, Klang MP Charles Santiago asked who had failed the people in Selangor over water woes in the state.
He said the water disruption was the result of an accident due to poor maintenance of the Sungai Selangor Phase 3 (SSP3) water treatment in Bestari Jaya owned by Syarikat Pengeluar Air Selangor Sdn Bhd (Splash), which is not under the Selangor government.
The federal government is delaying the loan approval to allow Selangor’s takeover of Splash, he said.
“If the federal government can pay 100% for the takeover of Puncak Niaga, Syabas and Abbas, why is Putrajaya only willing to pay 60% of the cost to take over Splash?
“The remaining 40% to be paid by the state government will burden the people of Selangor,” he said during a press conference at the media centre at the Dewan Rakyat today.
He said there was no explanation given to Selangor as to why Putrajaya was no longer willing or able to pay 100% as it did before.
“All Water, Energy and Green Technology Minister Maximus Ongkili can shout at Selangor is: ‘Name the price.’
“But why should Selangor Menteri Besar Azmin Ali be the one to ‘name the price’ when Putrajaya has already said it will pay the lion’s share?”
Santiago said instead of playing politics with the water restructuring exercise, Putrajaya should come clean if it is running out of money to finance the takeover.
He said once Selangor took over Splash, there would be an improvement in maintenance and quality of water delivery, making incidents such as last week’s disruption to nearly two million consumers in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor preventable.
“Putrajaya must, therefore, answer doubts about its financial health and support solutions instead of politicking.”
Why didn’t water regulator SPAN monitor Splash?
Santiago said the state government could not prevent the water shortage last week as it did not have the authority to enter the Splash-owned water treatment facility as only the federal government could do so.
“The problem with the water disruption was due to poor maintenance at the Splash water treatment plant.
“It is a privatised outfit. The Selangor state government cannot go in to check. Only SPAN can do so,” referring to the water regulator, National Water Services Commission
Due to that, Santiago said SPAN should now answer to the public for not performing its role to ensure the water concessionaire was maintaining its water treatment plant well.
He has urged Putrajaya to set up a special team to check on Splash.
“It should be done today. Not tomorrow. Not day after. It needs urgent attention.”
He also claimed the people of Selangor believed the disruption to be an act of sabotage by the BN federal government and was confident the incident would not affect support for Pakatan Harapan.
“Even those on the 10th floor of low-cost flats in Selangor know the reasons for the water woes.”
He added Selangor’s dams were full, with the state’s water reserve margin at 3.8% at the end of 2017.
This would increase to 11% by early 2019 with its newly-opened Semenyih 2 Water Treatment Plant and the upcoming Langat 2 and Labohan Dagang plants.
State-owned water entity, Air Selangor, has reduced non-revenue water (lost through leakages or thefts) from 32.6% in 2015 to 30.1% in 2017, he added.
Yesterday, the Energy, Green Technology and Water Ministry’s secretary-general Zaini Ujang had given the Selangor government four months until July to agree to implement the water migration process to prevent the water crisis in the state from worsening.
He warned that if the state declined to make the decision, many implications would arise.
This included the Langat 2 Water Treatment Plant (LRA), which has completed the process of testing and commissioning, being left idle, he said.
Zaini said Langat 2 LRA will be able to provide a 10% safety margin for water storage, amounting to 565 million litres per day (MLD).
“As of now, the water storage margin in Selangor is at zero,” he said.
Zaini also refuted the allegation that the water woes in Selangor was an act of sabotage by the federal government, allegedly by closing the main pipes.
He said the same allegation was published in 2013 and 2014 and was being republished now to defame the federal government.
“It is actually an attempt to hide the Selangor government’s inefficiency in the management of its water industry,” he said.
Zaini also said the number of water disruption cases is the main indicator to measure the efficiency level of the water service.
“Selangor recorded the highest number of water disruption cases in 2016 at 259,537, compared with Penang (3,778) and Melaka (2,267),” he said. -FMT
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