PUTRAJAYA: A food factory in Beranang, Selangor has been issued a two-week stop work order from yesterday as the plant is believed to be the cause of the odour pollution in Sungai Semenyih, the Environment and Water Ministry (KASA) said in a statement today.

KASA said the Selangor Department of Environment (DOE) has opened an investigation paper to charge the factory owner on suspicion of having been responsible for the shutdown of the Semenyih Water Treatment Plant (LRA) on Aug 31 and later on Sept 3.

"Investigations by the Selangor DOE last Thursday and Friday (Sept 2 and 3) found that the plant was operational and several industrial effluent discharge and river water samples at the inlet were taken and sent to the Chemistry Department for chemical composition analysis.

"Further investigations were conducted at midnight last Friday (Sept 3) and air quality surveillance carried out at the factory's final discharge point (prior to public drains) had detected several substances namely volatile organic compounds (VOC) in the air which released an odour similar to the VOC substances detected in the water samples taken during the Semenyih LRA shutdown on Aug 31," the statement read.

According to KASA, following these findings, the DOE issued a notice to the factory under Section 38 (1) (a) of the Environmental Quality Act, 1974 to stop pollution immediately and the factory production process has been suspended until further notice.

The case is being investigated under Section 25 (1) Environmental Quality Act, 1974 and the Environmental Quality (Industrial Effluent) Regulations 2009.

KASA said the National Water Services Commission (SPAN) had also taken the waste water samples as well as other evidence and an investigation paper has been opened under Section 121 (1) (C) of the Water Services Industry Act 2006 (Act 655) that is a contamination of water offence, which if convicted, provides for a maximum imprisonment of 10 years or a fine not exceeding RM500,000.00 or both.

The Sungai Semenyih LRA was shutdown following the detection of odour causing substances by Pengurusan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd (Air Selangor) after 2 TON (threshold odour number) level reading was recorded at the Jenderam Hilir inlet at 5.15pm on Friday.

The shutdown caused unscheduled water supply disruptions in 463 areas in five Air Selangor regions, namely Petaling (172 areas), Hulu Langat (54 areas), Sepang (194 areas), Putrajaya (23 areas) and Kuala Langat (20 areas).

-- BERNAMA