By Amar Shah Mohsen
SHAH ALAM, March 5 — The Selangor Water Management Authority (Luas) has spent upwards of RM30 million on monitoring, controlling and enforcement activities along the state’s rivers and water source areas since 2018.
State executive councillor for infrastructure Izham Hashim said of this, RM210,000 was spent in 2018, followed by RM233,600 and RM360,000 in 2019 and 2020 respectively.
This figure ballooned to RM8.87 million in 2021, RM11.7 million in 2022 and RM8.88 million in 2023.
According to Izham, the substantial increase in spending since 2021 is largely owing to the water pumping operations from alternative ponds in Bestari Jaya to ensure sufficient supply.
Another factor is the implementation of the Luas Skuad Pantas (Rapid Squad), which conducts 24-hour surveillance and monitoring to prevent water pollution in the state.
“Water pumping accounts for 70 per cent of the overall operations costs, while round-the-clock monitoring takes up about 21 per cent,” he told the State Legislative Assembly today.
The remaining spending is for the development of telemetry stations, procurement of surveillance equipment, and maintenance of water resources infrastructure.
He was responding to questions from Taman Medan assemblyman Dr Afif Bahardin pertaining to Luas’ spending from 2018 to 2023 and the efforts taken to ensure the security of clean water supply in Selangor.
According to Izham, the state has already undertaken various initiatives to ensure sufficient supply for the population, including through the Raw Water Security Scheme (SJAM), which would help increase the state’s water reserves to be sufficient to last nine months.
Another major initiative is the implementation of the zero discharge policy that will come into effect in the middle of this year.
To a supplementary question on Selangor’s ability to continue supplying water to the ever-increasing population, Izham said the state government already has several plans in place, some of which are ongoing.
“When we make plans for water management, we don’t just look at current needs, but 20 years ahead,” he said.
Izham acknowledged that existing dams are insufficient to cater to future demands, which was why the state introduced the Hybrid Off-River Augmented Storage (Horas) and Selangor Off River Augmented Storage (Soras) schemes, among other things.
“We also have backup plans, like the use of groundwater and water imported from Pahang. And if we do run out of water, we will build desalination plans to desalinate sea water. That’s the worst case scenario.
“At present, we are only practising this in Pulau Ketam, due to the recurring issue of pipe bursts caused by ships.”
