NURADILLA NOORAZAM New Straits Times 1 May 14;
NEARLY THERE: This despite water in Sg Selangor dam yet to reach desired level
SHAH ALAM: FOR over six million consumers who have been putting up with water rationing over the past few months, the state government's decision to end the exercise is a much welcomed move.
Menteri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim said water overflow in some rivers of the state and heavy rainfall recorded in the past few weeks had prompted the state government to reach the decision, which came into effect today.
He said the decision was made following a meeting between the state government, state water concessionaires, National Water Services Commission (SPAN) and the Selangor Water Management Authority (LUAS) on Monday.
"We decided to end the water rationing exercise even though the Sungai Selangor dam's water level has not reached its desired capacity of 50 per cent.
"As of yesterday, the reading was 40 per cent. However, continuous downpour for the past few weeks has allowed the state government to reconsider our decision."
He said water was being pumped from several overflowed rivers into the dams.
"We can use the overflowed water and pump them into the dams to increase the water levels."
The state government had informed Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd (Syabas) of its decision and instructed it to discontinue water rationing for Phase 1 to Phase 4, starting today.
He said the state government's plan to pump water from an old mining pool near Bistari Jaya would continue with 10 pumps being used at present and another 10 more to be utilised next month.
He dismissed reports on health risks and contamination of pool water, saying the state government had conducted a number of researches on water quality since 2009.
"Before we made the decision to use water from the old mining pools, we have conducted researches every year to determine the water quality.
"We are confident to say that the water does not have any risk of contamination as claimed by certain quarters. The samples we brought back and studied had passed vigorous tests by the state health department.
"We also use a three- tiered filtering process to ensure that the water that reaches our customer is safe for consumption.
"If we keep extracting and pumping water from the pools, our water supply can last for more than five to six months than originally expected."
Khalid said the state government would look at enriching the usage of reservoirs and extracting groundwater under its Hybrid Off River Augmentation System technology.
"Our efforts to extract water from the earth, reservoirs and rivers are part of our contingency plans to face the dry season, expected from May to September.
"If all of our plans to restore water supply go uninterrupted, the supply will last us until 2050."
On the state government's plan to use rainmaking technology for cloud seeding from a neighbouring country, Khalid said he had written a letter to Defence Minister Datuk Seri Hishamuddin Hussein asking for permission.
On the construction of Langat 2 water treatment plant which was supposed to start yesterday, he said he hoped to see Energy, Green Technology and Water Minister Datuk Seri Dr Maximus Ongkili on the project's details.
On the state water restructuring exercise, Khalid said two of the four state water concessionaires had requested for the government to not invoke Section 114 of the Water Services Industry Act 2006 .
"I will meet Ongkili and the water concessionaires to fine-tune this deal as it has already taking a lot of our time.
"Personally, I would like to see Section 114 to be invoked, but we will see how it goes when we meet again to discuss the matter soon."
Water rationing ends today
wani muthiah, manjit kaur, a. ruban, isabelle lai, michelle tam, g. surach, joe pagnelli, brenda ch'ng, AND yvonne t. nathan The Star 1 May 14;
SHAH ALAM: Residents in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya need no longer suffer the inconvenience of water rationing beginning today.
Selangor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim said the water rationing exercise would end today.
All areas affected by the rationing will receive normal supply of water beginning today and the latest by Friday for localities with low water pressure, Khalid told a press conference after chairing the weekly exco meeting yesterday.
He said the decision to lift the water rationing was collectively made in a meeting on Monday attended by the Water Services Commission (SPAN), the Selangor Water Management Council (Luas), Kumpulan Semesta Sdn Bhd (KSSB) and the water concessionaire companies.
The state government had conveyed the decision to Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd (Syabas) which has been directed to ensure that consumers get their water back to normal, said Khalid.
He said the state government decided there wasn’t a necessity to wait for the dam to reach the 50% mark as it was confident that efforts such as pumping water from ponds into the Sungai Selangor dam as well as continuing rain at catchment areas would increase the dam’s water level.
“When we decided to consider (lifting the rationing) last week, the water level in the dam was about 37% to 38%,” said Khalid.
He added that the state government was at that time concerned about lifting water rationing without preparing itself for the dry spell expected soon.
“So before we decided to lift the water rationing, we asked our engineers to find out how much water we had from other sources that was available for contingency.
“Based on that calculation, we assume we would have water to last everyone for five to six months,” explained Khalid, adding that the water level at the Sungai Selangor dam currently stood at 40%.
Khalid said the state government and all relevant bodies would be stringently monitoring the water level at the dam to ensure it was on the rise.
The Mentri Besar, who could not say if water rationing would be implemented again, said the decision to call off the rationing would be reviewed from time to time.
Asked whether the rationing was being called off in time for the PKR polls, in which he will be contesting for the deputy party president’s post, Khalid denied it.
He also refuted claims that the rationing was being called off upon the instructions of Selangor economic adviser Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
“The calling off of water rationing has nothing to do with the PKR elections as the decision was not mine alone but made collectively and professionally by relevant parties,” he said.
On the safety of the water that was being pumped into Sungai Selangor from disused mining pools, Khalid said the water had been long tested for its safety.
The pools that would provide alternative water supply had been identified by Luas since 2009, said Khalid, adding that samples had been tested in 2011, 2012 and 2013.
He said the exco in charge of infrastructure Dr Yunus Hairi would be explaining the tests carried out on the water samples soon.
“He will explain if there is metal residue in the water and we will also get chemists’ reports,” added Khalid.
There were three levels of testing and all levels must be passed before the water went to consumers, he said.
In KANGAR, Bernama reported SPAN chairman Datuk Ismail Kasim as saying that consumers would be able to use water as normal from today.
Any decision to continue the scheduled water distribution would be made depending on the water level at the dam and raw water capacity, he said.
Geologist: Heavy metal pollution at some mining pools
The Star 1 May 14;
PETALING JAYA: Several disused mining pools at Bestari Jaya still show signs of heavy metal pollution and are unsuitable as an alternative water supply, says a geologist from Universiti Malaya.
Following a study visit with several students to the site in Kuala Selangor two weeks ago, Dr Muhammad Aqeel Ashraf said some of the mining pools observed were unsafe for use as alternative water supply.
“Most of the 108 mining pools in the area are safe to be used as an alternative source of water, but several of them have a green-coloured hue, which is a sign for a number of metal elements in the water,” he said when contacted yesterday.
The affected pools were usually the deep ones, measuring between 30 and 40 metres, he added.
Dr Muhammad Aqeel said there was also a high risk of polluted sediments entering the disused mining pools with heavy sand mining.
“The overall area is very big and chances of pollution from former and current mining activities remain high.”
Dr Muhammad Aqeel conducted a study in the area in 2010 for his doctorate titled Study of Water Quality and Heavy Metals in Soil & Water of Ex-Mining Area Bestari Jaya, Peninsular Malaysia along with fellow researchers at UM’s chemistry and geology departments.
The study suggested that the physio-chemical and metal content in the area exceeded permissible limits set by Malaysian Water Quality Standards.
The study reported that the level of degradation in the water quality and severe heavy metal pollution in the Bestari Jaya mining ponds was a major environmental challenge to the ecosystem and posed a potential source of pollution to Sungai Selangor, the end recipient.
In light of yesterday’s announcement on the lifting of the water rationing exercise, Selangor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim gave his assurance that mining pool water was safe.
“The mining pools have been identified as alternative water sources by the Selangor Water Management Authority since 2009,” he said.
Meanwhile, Coalition Against the Privatisation of Water coordinator Charles Santiago said the state government should produce a letter from the Chemistry Department and the Health Ministry stating that the mining pool water was not contaminated before dumping it into Sungai Selangor.
“The letters must state that the pool water does not contain arsenic, zinc, tin and other heavy metal residue which has serious health implications,” said Santiago, who is also Klang MP.
He added that the treatment plants were not equipped to treat water containing heavy metal residue.
He said unlike the practice in other counties, the mining pools here were not treated and rehabilitated when they became redundant.
