SELANGOR DUN | The Selangor government suspects that the latest odour pollution which has disrupted water supply to more than one million users could be an act of sabotage.
Exco Hee Loy Sian (above), who heads the environment, green technology, science, technology and innovation and consumer affairs portfolio, revealed this during the state assembly sitting today.
Responding to a question from Bukit Lanjan assemblyperson Elizabeth Wong, he revealed that the TON (Threshold Odour Number) reading was recorded three times from 2am to 7am by the Selangor Water Management Authority (Luas) and Air Selangor this morning.
“Therefore, we suspect it (the pollution) occurred after 7am to 10am.
“We believe this is sabotage and a police report will be made,” he added.
Earlier, Wong had demanded an answer from Hee, pointing out that the latest pollution happened 24 hours after the (Luas) (Amendment) 2020 Bill to enhance the existing provisions, including the legal and enforcement actions, was passed.
Selangor Menteri Besar Amirudin Shari, who tabled the bill, had said the amendments were to ensure that appropriate efforts and actions could be taken in a comprehensive manner to curb the problem of river pollution, hence protecting the state’s water sources.
The Luas Enactment 1999, which was gazetted on May 20, 1999, has not been amended since it was enforced more than two decades ago.
Among the amendments made are the inclusion of the offence of causing odour and taste pollution to water, mandatory jail sentence, raising the fine to a minimum of RM200,000 and up to RM1 million, giving the director or enforcement official the power to make seizures without a warrant, the polluters to pay for the cleaning cost to Luas and giving it the power to offer a reward to the informants.
The amendments also empowered Luas to impose charges for taking extra water from the sources so as to prevent wastage, to demand compensation for the cost of keeping the seized assets and improving the procedure of issuing directives to the public authorities to take protection and conservation measures for the affected water sources.
Selangor, which has been under Pakatan Harapan's control since 2008, has witnessed repeated water cuts due to pollution.
As for the latest incident, water cuts commenced at 6pm this evening due to the shutting down of three affected water treatment plants (SSP 1, 2, and 3) in Kuala Selangor.
This affects 1,139,008 accounts covering 1,279 areas in Wilayah Kuala Lumpur, Petaling, Klang, Shah Alam, Kuala Selangor, Hulu Selangor, Gombak and Kuala Langat. - Mkini
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