Over one million households in the Klang Valley had their water disrupted last week. This was linked to a factory disposing of industrial solvents through a manhole leading to an Indah Water Konsortium facility, the latest in a string of contaminant-related outages in the state.
Charles Santiago, Klang MP and former chairman of the National Water Service Commission (SPAN), told FMT that rivers should be designated as national security areas, with no factories allowed within 100-150 metres of the waterline.
“This means there will be no movement at all of people into the area. It also means you have to remove all the factories.
“If it is a legitimate factory, they can be asked to move to an industrial area. If they are illegal, you can decide whether to legitimise them, move them or demolish them. The state can decide.”
At the moment, he said, a company looking to build a factory bordering a river only needs local council approval.
He admits that recent water shortages have made these authorities more careful but there is still a relatively low bar to clear for companies.
K Kalithasan, manager of the River Care Programme at the Global Environment Centre, agreed that the government should exert control over the usage of land through the tightening of licences.
“To put conditions on the licensing is the best way. Then they can implement a total ban on heavy industrial factories upstream of the water intake,” he said.
Kalithasan also said there could be a fairly simple solution staring lawmakers in the face, with Selangor having numerous water storage facilities, like the Hybrid Off-River Augmented Storage (Horas).
While the current approach involves pumping the stored water into the polluted body to dilute the contaminant, he said these reserves should instead be treated similarly to a backup water tank one might have at home.
“This means the treatment plant has two options – direct extraction from the river, which is what happens normally, and in emergencies they can switch to taking water directly from Horas and other water storage options.”
He said this would eliminate the need to shut down the treatment facility, which can take time to restart operations, and provide more consistent water supply in times of crisis.
Santiago said there are too many agencies involved at the moment, and reiterated calls he had made previously for a single river protection authority to be established to monitor and enforce environmental protection compliance.
He said the people of Selangor have been victimised by the continued pollution, and called reformation of the water systems a “matter of priority”.