SHAH ALAM, Oct 1 — Selangor residents with a household income of above RM4,000 and living in a home with several family members may still enjoy free water next year.

Selangor Mentri Besar Amirudin Shari said the homeowner or head of the family could make an application for the facility with relevant proof.

“A home with a large number of residents or children and feel it is entitled to free water can still apply for free water from us.

“We will evaluate and in the application they will also need to provide proof that the home has many family members,” he told reporters after opening the Selangor Islamic Religious Department’s (JAIS) Islamic Transformation Management Convention.

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He said this when asked about complaints from residents with large family members and their dissatisfaction when the Selangor government set a household income of only RM4,000 and below could enjoy free water supply effective March 1 next year.

Last Friday, the state government announced the rebranding of the Free Water Programme, implemented since June 1, 2008, to the Darul Ehsan Water Scheme following the increasing number of residents in the state each year.

Through the new scheme, those with household income of RM4,000 and below were eligible to enjoy 25 cubic metres of free water.

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Commenting further, Amirudin said the state government’s study also found that about 65 per cent of existing free water recipients would continue to receive the facility next year.

“At the moment we are offering this free water to all residents regardless of payroll”, he said.

Meanwhile, Amirudin said the state government had planned to set up a monitoring team with the Smart Selangor agency (SmartSel) to monitor rivers in the state that are at risk of pollution.

“This is important so that we can monitor the rivers. Usually they were only monitored after the pollution but we want them to be monitored before the (pollution) incident,” he said. — Bernama