Don’t mess up the water services industry
RECENTLY, there has been a suggestion that the Sewerage Capital Contribution Fund and Water Industry Fund under the National Water Services Commission (SPAN) be managed by the Ministry of Energy, Green Technology and Water (KeTTHA).
I have had the privilege to be involved in Span since its formation and have indepth knowledge on the Water Services Industry Act 2009 (WSIA) model as well as SPAN’s functions and duties. There were many planning details that were designed for SPAN to be implemented within the 9th and the 10th Malaysia Plan. Sad to say, not even 30% of those deliverables are done. It is mainly due to interference and inadequacies in the ministry and SPAN itself.
SPAN is the economic and technical regulator for water services (water treatment, water supply and sewerage) as well as for financing of water services industry through Pengurusan Aset Air Berhad (PAAB). The National Water Services Industry Restructuring (NWSIR) is a long-term effort to uplift below par performance of the water services sector in Peninsular Malaysia and Labuan.
PAAB is designed to source funding and implement infrastructure development. PAAB carries out the bidding process to award projects and monitor the implementation of those projects. PAAB is also fully regulated by SPAN under the WSIA model.
Sewerage Capital Contribution Fund under Section 172 of WSIA is already being implemented and the Water Industry Fund under Section 171 of WSIA is being developed but it is not suitable for implementation at current stage. Under WSIA, it is the responsibility of SPAN to ensure these funds are correctly, transparently and efficiently used. There is a new fund being proposed in the upcoming amendment to WSIA (Water Supply Capital Contribution under Section 171A) and it is still being deliberated on.
Based on experience and indepth knowledge of how the ministry and SPAN operate, it will be a disastrous move to place the current and future funds under the ministry. The WSIA model allows PAAB to carry out project implementation and it is wiser to implement any projects under these funds via the same model. We must understand that these funds are paid by public in one way or another.
Therefore, abuse or misuse of these funds is a breach of trust under the SPAN Act and WSIA.
Let’s look at a mobile water treatment plant that was forced to be approved under the sewerage capital contribution fund. This plant was placed in a territory that was not regulated by SPAN. It was a project that was pushed by the ministry and this mobile plant is not really being used at the moment.
In addition to that, KeTTHA has redundant agencies which are Water Supply Department (JBA), Sewerage Services Department (JPP), Sustainable Energy Development Authority and Yayasan Hijau. JBA and JPP are directly redundant due to the operations of SPAN, PAAB, water operators and Indah Water Konsortium.
SPAN does not regulate the ministry, JBA and JPP. So, any wrongdoings by these agencies will not be able to be investigated and rectified by SPAN. By the way, it was due to the failure of these redundant agencies in water services sector for many years that the WSIA model was developed and SPAN was formed.
Placing these funds under KeTTHA will only allow redundant agencies to dig into the funds and maybe more white elephant projects will be carried out. SPAN would not be able to cross check and rectify these problems as the commissioners, chairman and CEO of SPAN are still appointed by Minister of Energy, Green Technology and Water and by extension the ministry oficials.
My question is, why not just use the existing WSIA model by using PAAB to implement the projects under these funds compared to the suggestion of placing these funds under the ministry, which may cause more harm to the water services sector?
This article was contributed by Piarapakaran S., president of the Association of Water and Energy Research Malaysia (Awer), a non-government organisation involved in research and development in the fields of water, energy and environment.