KUALA LUMPUR, March 7 — The scheduled water disruption affecting parts of Selangor and the Klang Valley have had minimal impact on households in Ampang, due to the heads-up given by Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd (Syabas) last week.
Housewife Aliza Zahari told the Malay Mail yesterday that she has collected a week's worth of water for her family of six when the announcement was first made last week.
“I've collected barrels of water at home. We can use it to wash our clothes, dishes and to bathe for at least a week. Once the (flat's) water tank has run dry, I plan on buying mineral water for consumption and cooking. I don't want to use the water we collected because of sediments.
“Right now our tap is still running at a trickle because of the water tank,” said the 34 year old mother of four who lives on the 17th floor of the Taman Industri Lembah Jaya flat in Ampang.
Her neighbour who lives two floors above on level 19, Shammiza Mazlini Yusof said she has collected enough water to last her family for three to four days.
Shammiza said that those living in the upper levels of the 21-storey flat still have running water due to water pressure coming from the flat's collective water tank located on the rooftop.
“I think those living from level 10 and below will be the first ones to experience the water disruption. Right now my tap is still running strong, I think it's because of the water pressure,” said the 39-year-old Shammiza.
She also added that her housing area rarely experiences any water disruption or shortages and even when it does occur, it only lasts for a few hours.
Another resident of the flat, 58-year-old Fauziah Ree said her friend on the 12th floor had already experienced water disruption as early as 8pm on Monday.
Fauziah's unnamed friend, who runs a small food delivery operation from her kitchen was preparing a meal of fried rice that Fauziah ordered when she realised suddenly her tap water had run dry.
The three ladies had gone down to the flat's car park to collect reverse osmosis (RO) water delivered by Syabas who were there on a public relations exercise.
They were very happy to receive two bottles of five litre RO water each, although the Syabas workers there did not disclose how many bottles were sent to the flat. The Malay Mail estimated roughly 100 bottles were delivered to Taman Industry Lembah Jaya.
At its service centre located at an empty gravelled-filled lot next to AEON Big hypermarket in Ampang, Syabas has seven water tank trucks on standby to deliver water to the surrounding areas.
By 3pm yesterday, they had deployed the trucks 11 times when instructed by the operational headquarters.
One of the workers who requested anonymity said the first critical delivery made yesterday morning was to Kau Ong Yah Dialysis Centre in Ampang.
“We've had two critical deliveries this morning ― one to Kau Ong Yah Dialysis Centre and another to Jalan Mewah Health Clinic. At the dialysis centre we pumped the water from our tank straight into their tank.
“However if we deliver to households, they need to prepare their own containers. We just had a case where someone requested for water but did not have her own container. We have also deployed static water tanks around the area.
“Normally customers would call our helpline and we receive instructions from headquarters on where to deliver the water. We expect to deliver a lot more after office hours when people are back from work.
“Our truck normally idles around there for a while in case someone else in the neighbourhood would like some water,” said the worker.
With the helpline, the public rarely goes to the service centre anymore. The worker said they find it more convenient to make a phone call instead physically heading to the service centre.
Last night, Syabas said that Klang Valley will face an extended water disruption due to a surge vessel system burst at the Sungai Selangor Phase 3 (SSP3) water treatment plant.
The incident occurred just before the water treatment plant was to begin operations after undergoing a shutdown for emergency repairs yesterday. An on-site staff was injured during the system burst.
