SHAH ALAM, March 30 — The Sultan of Selangor Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah today told the state government to abide by the master agreement it signed with Putrajaya to find a swift solution to the state’s water industry restructuring plans.
He said he has faith that the current state administration under Mentri Besar Azmin Ali’s stewardship would be able to come to a fair solution to the long-standing issue, in the interest of Selangor and its people.
“Water is a vital necessity for the people’s lives.
“Hence, I ask that this issue not be politicised by any party so that it can be carried out properly to fulfill the needs of development and the people,” he said in his royal address on the first day of this year’s Selangor State Assembly sitting.
Selangor and Putrajaya recently entered a fresh round of negotiations after Azmin suspended the initial agreement, claiming that the federal government had breached the terms of the master agreement by demanding state land.
Azmin reportedly said last week that top officials from both the state and the Energy, Green Technology and Water Ministry are back in negotiations after Putrajaya agreed to revert to the original agreement inked between the two administrations on September 12, 2014.
Sultan Sharafuddin today said he viewed positively Azmin’s latest approach to “meet and discuss” with the latter’s federal counterparts to find a solution to the issue.
He urged Azmin, however, to remain firm and uphold the sovereignty of the state of Selangor and the interests of the people.
Earlier, Azmin claimed that Putrajaya wanted Selangor to hand over land on which 26,000km of pipes belonging to state water concessionaires are laid across, allegedly breaching the original terms of the September deal.
The PKR deputy president claimed that representatives from both state and federal governments listed assets consisting of pipes, water treatment plants, reservoirs and pump stations valued at RM14.9 billion in the agreement, but not land.
Under the water agreement, Selangor was meant to infuse a new special purpose vehicle — Pengurusan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd — with RM14.92 billion in assets to manage the water-restructuring exercise with Putrajaya.
The federal government was also to provide RM2 billion to help offset the state’s cost of taking over the four concessionaires — Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd, Puncak Niaga Sdn Bhd, Konsortium Abbas Sdn Bhd and Syarikat Pengeluar Air Selangor Sdn Bhd.
In return, Selangor would provide all necessary approvals for the construction of the Langat 2 water treatment plant that it had previously resisted.
