KUALA LUMPUR – The Environment and Water Ministry’s proposal to increase riverside reservoirs as an answer to water cuts caused by river pollution has been panned by stakeholders as an impractical solution to a systemic problem.
Speaking to reporters yesterday, Datuk Seri Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man said his ministry is drafting a plan to increase the number of such reservoirs to “give us a second water source in case our rivers get polluted”.
The reservoirs will provide up to two weeks’ supply of water, he said in remarks following a supply disruption to 1.2 million households after odour pollution was detected in Sg Selangor early yesterday.
However, former National Water Services Commission (SPAN) chairman Charles Santiago rubbished the idea, calling it nonsensical.
“What we need are buffer zones of 50m to 100m on both sides of the riverbank, and to declare these areas as being of national security concern. Anyone who crosses into these zones must be put under surveillance,” he told The Vibes.
If there are already factories operating in these zones, he said, they should be relocated.
Citing the Selangor water crisis, Santiago, who is Klang MP, said it is the public that bears the brunt of supply disruptions, particularly poor households and small enterprises.
They should be entitled to a regular cash aid of up to RM200, he said.
Kiu Jia Yaw, co-deputy chairman of the Bar Council Environment and Climate Change Committee, pointed to overdevelopment as a reason for water pollution.
“We are starting to see natural resources and our activities mixing together and having an ecological impact, especially when development moves closer to these natural resources.”
Tuan Ibrahim’s riverside reservoirs are merely a short-term solution as they, too, could end up being polluted, he said.
“Where does the water in these reservoirs come from? They would be susceptible to pollution, too. The question we should ask instead is, why are pollutants getting into the river?
“Look at the rate and ratio of prosecution and convictions against polluters, how many of them are charged and actually get convicted, or get their cases dropped. From there, businesses may just view the matter as a risk.
“Perhaps, a financial angle can be taken, where banks must ensure that the businesses they give loans to comply with environmental due diligence.”
Malaysian Nature Society senior adviser Tan Sri Salleh Mohd Nor trained his guns on concessionaires involved in the supply, management and sanitation of raw water.
“These water management bodies should pay the public for this. The government should penalise them for imposing this (supply disruption) on the public.”
This is not the first time that riverside reservoirs have been proposed, and Salleh said a better and cheaper solution is to equip factories with “tracers”, so that “when pollutants enter the water supply, the authorities can detect where they come from and take appropriate action”. – The Vibes, October 20, 2020
