Selangor water: Will the taps run dry?

Blogs Headlines

Good Articles to Share

Selangor water: Will the taps run dry?

Tan KW

Publish date: Thu, 28 Feb 2013, 02:53 PM

Story by

Aidila Razak

aidila@kinibiz.com

Story by Aidila Razak

aidila@kinibiz.com

syabas-selangor-khalid-ibrahim-rozali-ismail-water-2.0

Nevermind the finger-pointing, for end consumers there is one thing that matters: Will there be water when I turn on the taps tomorrow?

Federal minister in charge of water Peter Chin says there will be, but not for long. In fact, he said residents of Selangor are seeing the first signs of a water shortage this year.

Basing his facts on an Economic Planning Unit-commissioned National Water Resources Study (NRWS), Selangor will see a water crisis by 2014.

According to the study commissioned in 2000, demand for treated water in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya will grow between 2 and 3.5 percent annually. This will mean that demand will outstrip supply by about 476 million liters per day in 2014.

But critics like civil society group Coalition for Sustainable Water Management (CSWM) in a 2009 report said that the figures are “inflated” to justify the RM8.9 billion Langat 2 project. This includes a water treatment plant and a 45 kilometre tunnel to channel water from Pahang to Selangor.

According to the National Water Commission (Span), water consumption for the year 2010 was 239 liters per capita per day while consumption dropped slightly to 230 liters per capita per day in 2011.

This is a far cry than the gloom and doom picture painted in the NRWS which projected that demand for 2010 could be as high as 560 to 1224 liters per capita day. That is more than double of what actually took place.

So does this mean the Langat 2 is not needed? The answer is not so simple.

No crisis for now, but for how long?

While the Association for Water and Energy Research (Awer – a consumer group) does not agree that water demand will surge to the levels predicted in the NRWS, it believes that greater treatment capacity is needed in the long run.

Its president S Piarapakaran, a water engineer with a decade of experience under his belt, said that official figures denote that the average annual demand growth about two percent. Taking into account ongoing projects to increase treatment plant capacities underway in Selangor, a crisis will only hit the state closer to 2020.

This matches Selangor’s own estimates and the state is using this to block the federal funded-Langat 2 water treatment plant, which will be built within its borders. But a crisis looming six years later than earlier predicted is hardly cause for comfort.

In response, Selangor Menteri Besar Abdul Khalid Ibrahim said that Selangor’s dams are filled to the brim and it makes more sense to build water treatment plants near these dams instead of paying Pahang 10 sen per litre for water.

The state also suggested the use of membrane technology, groundwater and rainwater harvesting, all of which, he said, are cheaper. Taking the costlier path, he argued, would mean higher tariffs for the rakyat.

“The Langar 2 is far from the be-all end-all solution the federal minister would have us believe will improve the water services industry in Selangor,” he said.

Piarapakaran, however, believes that the state may have been “misinformed”, and that these technologies are either unsuitable to the local conditions or are insufficient in the longer term.

In its first phase, the Langat 2 water treatment plant will have a capacity of 1,130 million litres per day. The existing 34 plants operated by concessionaires Syarikat Pengeluaran Air Sungai Selangor (Splash) , Puncak Niaga Sdn Bhd and Konsortium Abass have a collective capacity of 4,581 million litres per day.

Building more water treatment plants near the dams will also eat into drought reserves, he said, and would end up costing more.

“There would be higher costs for staffing etc, and it will also mean building more pipes to channel water from the various plants, and greater chances of leakage,” he argued.

Bargaining chip

The state is also using the Langat 2 as a bargaining chip to push through the long-protracted water consolidation exercise. Abdul Khalid said Langat 2 can be delayed for “another 100 years” as far as he is concerned. Without consolidation, the state will not budge on Langat 2.

Instead of spending millions on Langat 2, it said, how about agreeing on a price for the takeover of three four water concessionaires so that Selangor can start working on reducing non-revenue water. As it stands, about a third of Selangor’s treated water is wasted through aged infrastructure, some of which Piarapakaran said are from “the British era”.

Whether or not Selangor agrees, tunneling works have already commenced while bids have already been called for the treatment plant and this situation is hardly ideal.

S Piarapakaran

(Photo from: konsumerkini.net.my)

“We are against this non-transparent tender process. Without everyone’s buy in, the risks are high and this will turn off credible international players. Who do you think will bid?” Piarapakaran said.

Among those who put in bids are the Salcon-MMC joint venture, Loh & Loh Corp and George Kent. The last was previously linked to people close to prime minister Najib Abdul Razak.

Meanwhile, CIMB Research in a note said expected beneficiaries of the Langat 2 are WCT Bhd, Puncak Niaga Holdings which owns majority stakes in two water concessionaires and Gamuda which owns 40 percent of Syarikat Pengeluaran Air Sungai Selangor (Splash).

Sources close to the state government claim that among the top reasons the state is blocking Langat 2 is to stop those close to the federal administration from riding the RM8.9 billion gravy train. This includes Puncak’s executive chairperson and one time Umno office bearer Rozali Ismail.

But Rozali, who owns 41 percent of Puncak also holds the trump card in the water consolidation negotiation.

Could a win-win solution be in sight?

http://www.kinibiz.com/story/corporate/5727/selangor-water-will-the-taps-run-dry.html#sthash.mDgN6L6D.dpuf