Its chief executive officer Jaseni Maidinsa said that so far, most incidents of raw water pollution in Malaysia were largely due to human error, negligence, ignorance and/or bad intentions.

“As an additional preventive measure, penalties for contamination of raw water resources need to be reviewed to be more stringent, to illustrate the ‘criminal’ implications that endanger the health and well-being of millions of people who depend on clean water supply daily.

“To minimise the risk of recurrence, all river banks of major raw water sources in Malaysia should be clearly defined, protected and controlled as ‘restricted access areas’,” he said in a statement, today.

Meanwhile, he also called for the proposed site for the Kulim International Airport project and its aeropolis to be moved to a safer location away from the banks of Sungai Muda, Kedah, so as not to endanger the quality of raw water.

“Raw water from Sungai Muda is used to produce treated water for 1.78 million people in Penang. The people in this state (Penang) use PBAPP-treated water for drinking, cooking, bathing, washing and cleaning every day,” he said.

He added that the quality of raw water abstracted by PBAPP from Sungai Muda, downstream from the proposed project site, would definitely be affected by a daily discharge of wastewater.