Selangor risks losing status as a developed state over water issue

Selangor risks losing its status as a developed state if it is unable to resolve the water impasse that has deterred multinationals and businesses from operating in the state, according to a non-governmental organisation.

Gerakan Prihatin Rakyat Selangor (GPRS) chairman Datuk Sohaimi Shahadan said more than 1,000 applications from various industry players to set up factories in Selangor were rejected or deferred by water distributor, Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor (Syabas)), due to the anticipated severe shortage of treated water.

"At present, many investors are bypassing Selangor simply because Syabas is unable to supply huge amount of treated water for factories to operate. This is a fact and it is worrying if investors continue to bypass Selangor," he said.

News reports revealed that Top Glove Corporation, the world's largest manufacturer of rubber gloves, had its application for an additional 20 per cent water consumption rejected by Syabas.

Consumer goods manufacturer F&N had to endure five days of dry taps at its new RM300 million facility in Pulau Indah.

Sohaimi said Selangor, which is Malaysia's richest state, would be going backwards if the state government lacked enthusiasm in ensuring investors' interest in the Klang Valley as well as failing to provide a basic need to households in the state.

He urged Syabas to keep reminding the Selangor state government on the critical shortage of treated water, adding that Syabas must be proactive in voicing its suggestions in overcoming the shortage before reserves at its plants reached a critical level.

"We (GPRS) were made to understand that Syabas had sent a letter to the Selangor state government three years ago explaining the need to have an additional water treatment plant.

"As such, it is the responsibility of the state government to ensure the construction of an additional plant," said Sohaimi, noting that the state government has a 30 per cent stake in Syabas

He hoped that Selangor Menteri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim was not using the water issue as a political tool to win support from the state's voters to oppose the federal government's call for an additional treatment plant.

He stressed that Khalid must look at the shortage of treated water as a long-term issue and take into consideration population growth.

"He (Khalid) must look at the water issue from a micro and macro perspective. Selangor is not only supplying water to the state but also to Putrajaya and Kuala Lumpur as well," Sohaimi said.

On the proposed Langat 2 water treatment plant, Sohaimi believed that the construction of the plant would be the answer to having adequate treated water in the state for a 10-15 year period as the proposed facility had taken in many factors, including the drought period in 1998 and the increase in the supply of raw water from Pahang.

"We must understand that not all the main sources of water supply in Selangor can be treated. Some are polluted and have become a serious threat. As such, it is also appropriate to have a raw water source from another state," he said.

The Pakatan Rakyat-led Selangor state government has "locked horns" with the federal government over the latter's proposal to expedite the Langat 2 plant to avert a water crisis in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya by 2016.

The plant is meant to increase the capacity of treated water and meet increasing demand of 3.5 per cent per annum by consumers.

Despite the federal government's plan to go ahead with the tender to build the Langat 2 treatment plant, the state government had said that it has the last say in approving the RM8.65 billion project to transfer raw water from Pahang to the Langat 2 plant.

In its latest move, the Selangor state government announced earlier this week on its plan to restore the defunct Bukit Jelutong water treatment plant for the proposed membrane technology that it claimed would be able to boost treated water production by an extra 100 million litres a day.