Selangor Journal Team
SHAH ALAM, Oct 19 – Water supply recovery to affected areas in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur can be expected within 24 hours, says Environment and Water Minister Datuk Seri Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man during a press conference broadcasted live on Facebook today.
He said the pollution today is less serious than the incident earlier this month involving Sungai Semenyih and Sungai Langat, which saw the pollution level reaching 9 TON (Threshold Odour Number). The maximum reading of the pollution level of the current event was at 3 TON.
“The pollution this time is not as serious as previously… As of 1.30pm today, the contamination level has reduced and it will be soon before we get to resume water supply (to users).
“Now we need to identify the cause… We suspect it comes from a few locations around an industrial area and we are still investigating the root cause of the pollution,” he said at the press conference held at the Sungai Selangor Phase 2 Water Treatment Plant.
Tuan Ibrahim said the perpetrators of water pollution are considered environmental criminals and that their actions will not be condoned.
“These environmental criminals tend to commit the crime during the weekends or in the wee hours of the morning. I would like to emphasise that the ministry will not compromise with these criminals,” he said, adding that actions will be taken against them as soon as possible.
Tuan Ibrahim added that Pengurusan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd (Air Selangor) has started mobilising water tankers to affected areas with priority given to critical premises such as hospitals and dialysis centres.
Earlier in a statement today, Air Selangor said a total of 1,196,457 users in 1,292 areas in Kuala Lumpur, Petaling, Klang/Shah Alam, Kuala Selangor, Hulu Selangor, Gombak and Kuala Langat were hit by unscheduled water supply disruption due to the contamination of Sungai Selangor.
The pollution detected at 2am today had forced the Sungai Selangor Phase 1, 2, 3 and Rantau Panjang Water Treatment Plants to cease operations.
