Menteri Besar (Selangor) Incorporated chief executive officer Faekah Husin said a contingency plan will only be discussed when a water emergency is declared.

“We have not reached a critical level yet, therefore there is no need of a back-up plan,” she said.

Selangor Water Management Authority (LUAS) had reportedly said a water emergency will be declared if the water levels is below 30 per cent.

Yesterday, Malay Mail reported talks of a Phase Five water rationing were underway and rationing may be stretched until the end of the year as reserves were depleting.

However, Faekah dismissed the claims saying the state government is confident water levels at dams in the state would reach 55 per cent by the end of this month.

“The rainy season has begun and the dams are increasing by one to two per cent daily.

“Unless the dams do not reach 55 per cent by April 30, then we will discuss the next move or Phase Five of water rationing,” she said.

Faekah, who was the former political secretary of Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim, insisted the state government had taken steps to look for new water sources through the launch of the Hybrid Off River Augmentation System (Horas). The first phase of Horas will be up and running by July next year.

“While we wait for Langat 2 which will take 36 months to complete, we have the Horas project on the way and will take a shorter time to complete,” she said.

Faekah said it was not easy for the state to launch the Horas project earlier as it is a new technology of “off river storage” and “horizontal collector well” concepts and the delay was also due to ongoing water-restructuring-related issues. 

Two weeks ago, the water level at Sungai Selangor was at 39.12 per cent and it dropped to 36.67 per cent yesterday.

As of yesterday, the levels at Klang Gates, Langat, and Sungai Tinggi dams stood at 50.04, 48.74 and 68.71 per cent respectively.

On Monday, the National Water Services Commission announced that once Phase Four of water rationing begins tomorrow, where a total of 1,340,231 households and 6.7 million users in nine districts in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya would be affected.

Phase One of water rationing, which affected areas in Hulu Langat, Kuala Langat and Sepang, began on Feb 28 after the Bukit Tampoi and Cheras Batu 11 water treatment plants were closed due to ammonia pollution.

The third phase, which covered 3.6 million users in Gombak, Petaling, Kuala Lumpur, Kuala Selangor, Hulu Selangor and Klang/Shah Alam, took place on March 10 and had been extended to April 30.

Faekah said the state has also not discussed the possibility of increasing water tariff in the state to prevent people from wasting water.

“We do not want to burden the people by increasing the tariff for now.

“Even if we increase the tariff, it will only affect those who use more than 20 cubic metres a month.”

The first 20 cubic meter in the state is provided free for residents. The state’s last tariff review was in 2006.