By Jerry Choong
SHAH ALAM, May 4 — The Selangor Water Management Authority (Luas) has ordered the premise involved in the pollution of Sungai Beranang to move any contaminants that could potentially taint the river flow, said state executive councillor for the environment Hee Loy Sian.
He said the order was issued under Section 121(1) of the Luas Enactment 1999, with the premise owner also instructed to immediately carry out cleaning to ensure the pollution does not recur.
“The premise owner is currently carrying out sump pit cleaning per the set procedure and the Environmental Department has also issued them a notice to cease operations effective May 1,” Hee said in a statement yesterday.
Early yesterday morning at 2.30am Luas detected a diesel-like odour in the vicinity of Sungai Beranang, with samples taken indicating a reading of level two threshold odour number (TON)
Further investigations also determined a high river water level and rapid flow due to heavy rainfall which resulted in the pollution containment at Sungai Kabul flowing into Sungai Beranang.
“Luas, Pengurusan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd, the Kajang Municipal Council and the National Water Services Commission (Span) have increased the steps to mitigate the pollution. Luas’ monitoring and static sampling has been increased to two locations in Sungai Beranang including Sungai Kabul and Sungai Semenyih after the discovery at Sungai Beranang.
“Additionally Luas has also placed three oil booms, 20 oil pads and five bags of activated carbon in Sungai Kabul to increase pollution prevention,” he said.
By 2.30pm, the river water returned to normal when odour tests began to record zero TON readings at the water treatment plant (WTP) with three consistent readings by 3.30pm. Subsequently, Air Selangor announced in a statement the Sungai Semenyih WTP resumed its operations at the same time.
“The state government will not compromise with any parties who commit the crime of polluting water sources and stern action will be taken in line with the Luas Enactment 1999.
“Both Luas and ourselves call upon everybody to be more mindful of any activities that could contribute to the pollution of water sources in the state and to report any suspicious activities to Luas for immediate action,” said the councillor.
The odour pollution in Sungai Kabul and its vicinity resulted in the Sungai Semenyih WTP and the Bukit Tampoi WTP having to shut down at 6:15am and 11:30am yesterday, respectively.
In turn, this led to an unscheduled water supply disruption for 472 areas in five districts under Air Selangor, including Petaling (172 areas), Hulu Langat (54 areas), Sepang (196 areas), Putrajaya (23 areas) and Kuala Langat (27 areas)
The water supply began to return in stages starting at 9pm, and fully returned to all affected areas by 8am today.
