By Ida Nadirah Ibrahim
SHAH ALAM, May 1 — The Selangor Water Management Authority (Luas) will increase the 24-hour monitoring of the sensitive and hotspot areas along the Sungai Selangor and Sungai Langat river basins to curb the pollution of raw water sources, says Izham Hashim.
The state executive councillor for infrastructure said that the enhanced surveillance would include more frequent monitoring and expanding the coverage of areas to include a wider radius near the water treatment plants (WTPs).
“The state government takes the issue of water supply disruption due to pollution very seriously.
“The state administration had instructed Luas to further enhance the 24-hour monitoring of sensitive areas and pollution hotspots along the Sungai Selangor and Sungai Langat river basins, which are the source of raw water supply for the state,” he said in a statement today.
Izham stressed that the state administration would not compromise with the perpetrators behind the contamination of water sources and would take stringent action in line with the Luas Enactment 1999.
“The state government urges the public to be mindful of any activities that could potentially contribute to the pollution of the water resources and to report any suspicious activities to Luas for immediate action,” he said.
Izham said in its bid to ensure continuous water supply to be channelled to the consumers in the state, the state government is actively implementing the RM300 million Raw Water Security Scheme (SJAM) project, which involves four main components in Sungai Selangor and Sungai Semenyih to provide alternative water supply in the event of pollution incidents.
He added that the four components are expected to be completed by the end of the year.
Yesterday, the Sungai Semenyih WTP had to temporarily cease its operations at noon following the detection of diesel odour pollution at the Jenderam Hilir inlet, resulting in an unscheduled water supply disruption for 463 areas in five regions in the Klang Valley.
Pengurusan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd (Air Selangor) said that the water supply in the affected areas is expected to be fully restored at 3pm today.
