SHAH ALAM:The Selangor state government is confident that several short and long-term measures will be able to fully solve water supply disruptions caused by river pollution.

State Infrastructure, Public Facilities, Agricultural Modernisation and Agro-based Industry Committee chairman Ir Izham Hashim said the short-term measures could be completed within a year while measures implemented in the long term were targeted to take three to five years.

“All measures related to resolving water resource pollution will be submitted in greater detail when tabling the 2021 Selangor Budget this afternoon.

"Through these measures, we are confident that  we will soon be able to help solve the problem when there is pollution and we will also conduct research to obtain water from other  sources including groundwater," he told reporters after a briefing on solutions to water supply disruptions due to pollution in Sungai Selangor and Sungai Semenyih here, today.

Earlier, during the briefing Izham said among the short-term solutions proposed by the state government were conducting preliminary treatment to water in the treatment ponds, monitoring and guarding the major river basins, using high-tech drones to conduct monitoring and amending the Selangor Water Management Authority (LUAS) enactment.

As for the long-term measures, the proposals include relocating industries or factories that are at high risk of causing river pollution, implementation of 'zero discharge' and 'polluters pay principle' in industrial areas, water flow to water treatment plants to be drawn from ponds or lakes instead of from rivers directly, decentralisation of water treatment plants throughout Selangor, 'interconnectivity' between stabilisation and main ponds as well as aggressively implement non- revenue water programmes.

Commenting further on the use of drones, Izham said the tool to be used is of industrial grade adding that RM2 million had been allocated for the purpose of monitoring, analysing data and water sampling for a period of two years.

“The RM2 million allocation is not solely for the purchase of the drones but to conduct monitoring at risky locations and to produce high quality data and video which will enable us to identify the perpetrators of pollution,” he said.

He added that the drones were capable of taking water samples at difficult to access locations and could be used to monitor situation in the event of a flood or disaster.

-- BERNAMA