Najib said the state government’s recently announced four-pronged approach to prevent water pollution was good, but would not be able to prevent all types of water pollution.
Neither could it ensure that water supply would not be disrupted which Najib said was the main focus.
Najib said that RM500,000 drones “won’t supply water”. The state government said last week it would allocate RM2 million for four drones to monitor the river basins to guard against pollution.
River pollution has frequently led to temporary closure of water treatment plans, and widespread disruption of water supply to the Klang Valley.
“What is needed is a reservoir located downstream and by the riverside, and an off-river storage near the treatment plant,” Najib said.
“When the river is polluted, the plant will stop taking in river water. Water from the off-river storage system would be supplied to the treatment plant for a few days to provide for consumers,” he said in a Facebook post.
Once the river is free from pollution, the off-river storage system can be refilled with water from the river, Najib said.
The drones are among four measures announced by the Selangor government to curb river pollution. It proposes to amend state laws to include stiffer penalties, reward whistle-blowers and increase the number of enforcement officers.
Last year, the federal government was asked to consider reactivating a plan for off-river storage following the closure of the Sungai Semenyih water treatment plant due to pollution.
Charles Santiago, then chairman of the water services commission (SPAN) said a trial project on off-river storage in Selangor “some time back” had proven to be costly.
In 2014, a hybrid off-river augmentation system was built on a former mining land at a cost of RM400 million that combined an off-river storage concept and horizontal collector well.
Just two months ago, Putrajaya said an off-river storage project, known as Takungan Air Pinggiran Sungai, would be carried out in Melaka, Kedah, Johor and Negeri Sembilan, to increase the number of reservoirs in the country.
In February, the Pahang government unveiled a RM12 million off-river storage pilot project in Lipis, scheduled to operate later this year.