Accused of pollution, Indah Water says waste was illegally dumped into system of Selangor plant

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 10 — Wastewater and sanitation company Indah Water Konsortium (IWK) Sdn Bhd has dismissed the claim by Selangor Water Management Authority (Luas) that effluence from one of its plants was the cause of the unscheduled water disruption which affected over one million households in the Klang Valley.

Its chief executive officer Narendran Maniam said the releasing of the plant’s final effluent was halted last Thursday, November 4, after IWK detected elements of illegal waste that was dumped into the sewerage system.

“In fact, the Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) was affected by illegal waste discharge by irresponsible parties,” he said in a statement.

Narendran said the affected STP had to contain the flow for the past few days to avoid spillage into the waterways.

“If this was not executed promptly, the illegal element that came into our plant would have had created further detriment to the environment.

“IWK also had to carry out further treatment by using enzymes to neutralise the process. Furthermore, during this period, we had to treat the incoming wastewater offsite,” he said.

Narendran added that when IWK stopped releasing the effluent last week, its team immediately informed all relevant authorities about the illegal element which came into the plant.

He also cited earlier reports of Selangor exco Hee Loy Sian stating the source of the latest case of pollution to Air Selangor’s water treatment plant in Rawang was alleged to have originated from IWK plant in Taman Velox, Rawang.

“At the same time, Hee also said he suspected that sabotage could have occurred.

“We have lodged a police report about this matter and is now being investigated by the authorities as to ascertain the actual cause of the pollution,” Narendran said.

The chief executive officer also urged all parties to stop baseless accusations, when the effort should be focused on apprehending the perpetrator.

Luas had announced that its preliminary investigations determined the effluent discharge from the IWK GBK 225 waste treatment plant as being responsible for affecting water supply via illegal discharge to a nearby manhole.