Selangor residents may have to pay more for water after restructuring exercise - Azmin

Selangor residents may have to bear higher water tariffs in after the master agreement on the state's water industry restructuring has been , including the taking-over of the water concessionaires.

Menteri Besar Mohamed Azmin Ali said increased water tariffs might be considered for the long term due to the expected costs to be borne by Pengurusan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd (Air Selangor).

"Implementation of the agreement will surely involve the cost of restructuring the industry to ensure the supply of quality water, but the state government will not burden the people.

"To reduce the 35 per cent of non-revenue water (NRW) currently, will also incur a cost," he said in reply to a supplementary question from Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail (PKR-Kajang) at the state assembly sitting, here, Monday.

Earlier, Mohamed Azmin (PKR-Bukit Antarabangsa) said the master agreement with the federal government on July 10, with a 60-day period for the implementation of the main conditions in the agreement, including the process of taking over the concession companies.

He said that to date, only Syarikat Pengeluar Air Selangor Sdn Bhd (SPLASH) was still in the negotiation process, while that involving three other water concessionaires, Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor (Syabas), Konsortioum ABBAS Sdn Berhad (ABBAS) and Puncak Niaga Holdings Berhad (PNHB) had been completed.

The besar admitted that Selangor was facing treated water supply problem due to the lack of treatment plants to meet the supply needs of residents and industries in the state.

"The problem in Selangor is not due to inadequate treatment plants, which requires the building of the Langat 2 Water Treatment Plant to be expedited," he said.

To a question from Ng Suee Lim (DAP-Sekinchan) on the giving of free water, Mohamed Azmin said the state government would study the matter as some consumers were found to have abused the facility.

"There have been claims that some who receive the benefit of free water, have been using it to wash cars, water their gardens and so on. However, at the moment the state government does not intend to cancel the free water ," he added.