A year of water woes

A year of water woes

a-year-of-water-woes-river-contamination-left-more-than-300000-households-with-dry-taps

IT WAS a year of too much rain and dry taps for Subang Jaya residents, who experienced flash floods and suffered along with other fellow Selangor folk during the water cut.

There were flash floods near IOI Mall in Puchong along the Damansara-Puchong Highway (LDP) and various parts in Subang Jaya and USJ.

As reported on Nov 19, the state Drainage and Irrigation Department (DID) had said the rainfall intensity was recorded at 81mm, which was regarded as unusually high as even a reading of 60mm is categorised as heavy rainfall.

“The unusually heavy rain had pushed water level in Sungai Kelang to 7.99m against a normal level of 7.5m, and with the river experiencing high tide, water backflowed into the LDP monsoon drains,” DID had stated.

A flood relief project in USJ 6 was being carried out by Prasarana Malaysia Bhd at a cost of RM1mil. According to Subang Jaya Municipal Council (MPSJ) president Datuk Nor Hisham Ahmad Dahlan, there would be flood mitigation plans to address flooding in Bandar Puchong Jaya to be done by Prasarana by March next year.

Subang Jaya folk were living the proverb “when it rains, it pours” when it came to their water woes.

More than 300,000 households were left without water supply earlier this year because of river contamination near the catchment area.

The unscrupulous took advantage of the situation by selling water at an exorbitant price, especially to business owners who were desperate for water supply.

Bandar Puteri Residents Association and Rukun Tetangga chairman Datuk Samson Maman said some people actually paid for water as they did not know they could request from Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd (Syabas) for supply to be delivered to their area via tankers during the prolonged disruption to water supply.

Syabas corporate communications head Amin Lin Abdullah had said various authorities, namely the Department of Environment (DOE), National Water Services Commission, Selangor Water Management Board and local councils were responsible for preventive measures and steps to address pollution in rivers.

“Syabas river surveillance team has been monitoring and will continue to monitor the rivers that supply raw water to water treatment plants,” he said.

He also reminded consumers to refrain from buying water supply from unauthorised parties.

“Relief water supply is delivered to affected areas whenever water supply disruption occurs. Consumers can also request for relief water supply by sending an SMS to 15300 by typing TANKERname and address,” he added.

Selangor Local Government, New Village Development and Legalising of Factories Committee chairman Ean Yong Hian Wah said there were several reasons for water contamination.

“It could be due to pollution from another state, waste treatment plant, factories or natural causes.

“Based on statistics, most contamination is due to high ammonia content,” he said.

The state had issued a directive to councils such as the Kajang Municipal Council (MPKj), Selayang Municipal Council, Kuala Selangor District Council and Hulu Selangor District Council with rivers in their jurisdiction that fed water treatment plants, to prepare a database of factories along the rivers.

“Local councils will help in prevention steps and monitoring factories. Councils will also review industrial areas situated along rivers and review the local plan,” said Ean Yong.

“Factories and buildings situated on government land found to have the potential to cause pollution and illegal factories on state land must be removed. MPKj has already started demolishing illegal factories.

“For illegal factories on private land in industrial zones, we will consider their appeal based on their activities; those not situated in the zone will not be given approval,” he added.

StarMetro reported that MPKj had demolished two of four factories that operated illegally on the Sungai Semenyih reserve land.

On the topic of contamination, this time dealing with food, Subang Jaya Municipal Council (MPSJ) had been keeping a diligent eye on eateries in the municipality.

It carried out 72 operations this year, inspecting 913 food premises.

MPSJ corporate communications officer Muhammad Azli Miswan said the increase in number of inspections was because there were more new businesses set up.

He said the frequency of inspections done followed the Food Premises Grading System set in 2014 and that more focus was placed on premises that were the subject of many complaints.

Through this system, premises with Grade A would be inspected every two years, Grade B every once a year, Grade C every six months and those with Grade D would be shut for two weeks.

Those with Grades A to C would be inspected earlier than scheduled should there be complaints against any of the food premises.

From the inspections, 733 compounds were issued mostly to restaurants and stalls that failed to show proper food handling, did not install grease traps and had workers without anti-typhoid vaccination.

They were also fined for using their back lanes to prepare food and failing to maintain cleanliness around the restaurant including its toilets and store room.

MPSJ also ordered 72 food premises to shut down for two weeks to clean up their premises and could only resume operations once their cleanliness are found to be satisfactory during a follow-up inspection.