‘IT’S NOT SUSTAINABLE TO GIVE FREE WATER TO ALL’
It’ll cost state govt RM200m next year if scheme is extended to all, says Selangor MB
THE cost of implementing the free water programme in Selangor is set to reach more than RM200 million and will no longer be sustainable if it is extended to all the people in the state next year.
Menteri Besar Amirudin Shari said the cost incurred by the state government for the programme had increased from year to year since it was implemented in June 2008.
According to Amirudin, as of October, the state government had spent a total of RM1.6 billion on the programme.
“For 2008, the state government spent RM68 million, RM131 million was spent in 2009, for 2014 (RM167 million), RM179 million (in 2016) and for 2017, it was RM187 million.
“If it is continued in 2019, it will cost more than RM200 million, which is about 10 per cent of the state budget, and this is not sustainable,” he told the state legislative assembly in reply to Lee Kee Hiong (PH-Kuala Kubu Baru).
Lee had wanted to know the cost of implementing the free water programme in Selangor.
Under the state’s 2019 Budget tabled on Nov 23, free water will only be given to the B40 target group to meet the objective of reducing the burden of the less fortunate, with the amount of water provided also increasing from 20 cubic metres to 25 cubic metres per month.
Amirudin, when tabling the budget, had said that the increase in the number of residents in Selangor was among the main reasons for the free water scheme to be given only to the B40 target group.