Previous Syabas management left behind a ‘mess’ - Span chairperson

Years of poor maintenance of the water supply system by Syabas is the primary reason why Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor (Air Selangor) now needs to conduct major upgrading works, says National Water Services Commission (Span) chairperson Charles Santiago.

Thousands of households across the Klang Valley were supposed to face scheduled water cuts this week but this was later postponed. This was just three months after residents faced one of the biggest ever disruptions in April.

For both instances, Air Selangor stated it needed to completely shut down its water treatment plants to conduct upgrading and repair works.

Asked to explain the frequent repair works, Santiago said the water concessionaire inherited a “mess” from Syabas and was now urgently trying to resolve long-standing problems.

“I’m not saying (the water cuts) are reasonable but you have no choice because of poor maintenance over many years.

“Ais Selangor (now) has a lot of work to do, a lot of work to do. You know why? The mess left behind is plenty. So this is really about cleaning the house.

“What’s worse is I think a lot of these things were never anticipated and were not even costed. A lot of the problems we are dealing with are heritage problems,” he said in a press conference after an event in Petaling Jaya today.

Previously owned by Puncak Niaga Sdn Bhd, Syabas was acquired by the Selangor government and rebranded as Air Selangor in 2014.

While poor maintenance was the primary cause for the upgrading works, another reason was to accommodate the fast-growing population in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor, Santiago added.

Big network, phased repairs

Klang Valley’s sprawling and interconnected water supply system meant that repair work needed to be done in phases, resulting in several rounds of disruptions, explained the Span chairperson.

“It’s actually a huge network, you can’t cut all at once [...] you must do it in phases. You need to do phase one, then phase two and then phase three,” he said.

Santiago anticipated Air Selangor would eventually need to resume its postponed maintenance work but assured that would be the end of major scheduled water disruptions in the near future.

“Given that this week’s (water cut) is (called) off, Air Selangor needs to make a fresh application (to Span) for a date they have to choose if they want to go ahead with the cut.

“[...] then there won’t be any major cuts after that,” he said.

Air Selangor called off its maintenance work plans after authorities discovered last weekend that two rivers had been polluted, one of them possibly sabotaged, and announced two rounds of sudden water cuts.

Most residents have since had their water supply restored. - Mkini