Residents prepare for a week without water

Wan Maimunah Abdul Razak just sat there, lovingly scrubbing a small blue shirt in a red basin at the front of her house. Small pearls of sweat formed on her forehead as she dipped the school uniform again and again in the soapy water. Her lone figure in a faded green kaftan adorned with big yellow flowers hunched forwards, carrying out a mother’s duty for her children.

“It’s definitely an inconvenience, but I will make do with whatever water I have for drinking and flushing the toilet,” she said, adding that she had been doing as much laundry as possible before a scheduled water disruption.

As the start of the scheduled water supply disruption in the Klang Valley looms, there is almost a carnival-like atmosphere as residents, both young and old, busy themselves by stocking up on water.

Residents in Taman Sri Keramat were seen filling up vessels of water of various sizes and in all colours of the rainbow.

Some were washing their cars, others doing their laundry, amidst squeals of delight and shrieks of laughter from children taking advantage of the situation to play around in the water and bubbles.

They were seen running around on the front porch, playing together with one spraying them with water from a long hose, dripping wet with the sounds of innocence and laughter filling the air, seemingly oblivious to the serious water disruption issue they would be facing in a matter of hours.

The expected cool of the night had not provided much relief to city dwellers from the heat of the day, with elevated humidity levels making the air feel quite stuffy and at times difficult to breathe.

Still, many were grateful the week-long affair announced by Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor involving more than 200,000 consumer accounts in Gombak, Petaling, Kuala Lumpur, Klang and Shah Alam is taking place during the school holidays.

Syabas said the scheduled stop-work order would enable the utility company to upgrade the plant’s switchboard, repair pipelines and replace sluice valves, among others.

The supply disruption, which began at 8am Tuesday, will last until 9pm on the same day. Supply will resume in stages after that and will be completed by 8am Sunday, it said in a statement.

For housewife Wan Maimunah with three small children, this disruption means she needed to prioritise her water usage for drinking, cleaning up and for bathing.

“I’m optimistic the water supply disruption will not cause too much problems, but I don’t want to take any chances especially with small children around,” she said with a smile, the smile of a mother ready to sacrifice anything for her children.