‘EVICT POLLUTERS FROM RIVER LOCATIONS’
Local councils know where the culprits are but lack legal power to take action, says Klang MP
ALL establishments found polluting rivers should be immediately evicted. Klang member of parliament Charles Santiago said this was the best solution for the longstanding issue that triggered crippling water disruptions, bleeding millions from consumers, industries and commercial outfits alike.
“The solution is simple — the councils have to move in. They know exactly where they (polluters) are located, but they may not necessarily have the legal power.
“This is happening every day. Factories want to operate cheaply and release their effluents in the river. It’s just that it’s excessive and that’s why it’s detected.”
He said Selangor had started to map out hotspots for establishments that polluted rivers with a view to move them but it required political will.
Charles, the former National Water Services Commission chairman, however, said a River Protection Authority would be able to address the gap between relevant state and federal enforcement agencies.
The body should be placed under the federal government. Certain areas and wide buffers stretching 100m on both sides of the streams would be demarcated as national security or protected zones.
“They can be manned by a special police force and the army. Once such an act and enforcement mechanism is in place, no
factory or establishment of the sort would be allowed to operate there.”
As to why Air Selangor did not come up with alternative raw water resource via reserves, Charles said the capacity for reserves was limited, adding they were from the Hybrid Off-River Augmentation System that made use of abandoned mining ponds to channel water to the rivers to dilute effluents.
“We were previously looking at
creating more reserves and by channelling them from these back-up ponds to the treatment plants for the purpose of processing them as an alternative for raw water.”
Charles said the current water cut was the “worst” that Klang Valley folk had experienced, referring to the scale of disruption that is expected to affect more than five million people over a period of at least four days.
He said Air Selangor should provide two hourly live updates on social media like how they did in the past.
“Previously there were frequent updates and the works, so people knew what was happening. But from what I could see (on Thursday), people only received one statement at 1pm and another at 7pm. So, (of course) they got angry.
“The update also has to be meaningful and provide details on the status of the clean-up or mitigation so far, as well as when supplies are expected to resume.”
Charles said the firm had yet give a full schedule of when and where their tankers, static and mobile, would be or when they would be arriving in neighbourhoods.
“For Klang, for instance, there is nothing so far on this when taps have run dry in Bukit Raja, Meru and even Pulau Indah.”
At 3pm, the firm released a list of locations of where their public taps and static tanks would be placed. However, there was no mention of when the mobile water tankers would be making their rounds.
Charles also urged the Selangor government to issue an immediate directive to all car wash operators to suspend their operations from now until water supplies were 100 per cent restored.
He also called on those with land to harvest rainwater for household chores and so on.