KUALA LUMPUR, March 12 — Klang MP Charles Santiago wants the federal government to terminate the water concession agreement awarded to Syarikat Pengeluaran Air Sungai Selangor Sdn Bhd (SPLASH).
The DAP lawmaker blamed SPLASH for the week-long water supply disruption in Selangor that began on Tuesday, saying the water concessionaire’s financial multimillion ringgit debts owed to Tenaga Nasional Berhad were behind its poor pump maintenance.
“SPLASH was awarded a 30-year concession by the previous Barisan Nasional-led Selangor state government in January 2000 to build, operate and maintain the water plant.
“This means that SPLASH is the concessionaire and supplier of treated water to Syabas, therefore responsible for the water disruption. Splash has not just failed to provide regular updates on the status of repair works but also didn’t have proper contingency plan to handle an emergency.
“As such the crucial question to ask is whether SPLASH’s concession agreement should be terminated given the poor maintenance and struggling debts,” Charles told a news conference in Parliament today.
He asserted that Selangor’s water company Air Selangor had paid a visit to the SPLASH water treatment plant to get to the bottom of the problem following public complaints and a loss of 30 million litres a day from the dams.
“Three of the water pumps were not repaired or maintained since 2016 and the fourth pump was recognised as faulty by Air Selangor. After repairing the fourth pump, the surge vessel system exploded during the process of reactivation, injuring five workers.
“It is clear that the plant was poorly maintained and as a result, placed thousands of households without water, distress and not to mention the extra expenses incurred by the people to buy food and water,” he said.
Charles called on the National Water Services Commission to investigate.
* Editor's note: A previous version of this article incorrectly reported that Charles Santiago is an MP from PKR. It has since been corrected.
