Teresa Kok told to stop blaming TNB over water disruptions

Seputeh MP Teresa Kok should question the Selangor Government instead of blaming Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) or the Federal Government over water disruptions in the Klang Valley affecting 3.8 million users.

The Barisan Nasional Strategic Communications Team said, if the DAP lawmaker still insisted on laying the blame on any party, she should question Selangor Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali.

In a statement, it said Kok was fully aware that the PKR Selangor Government's unit, Air Selangor had fully taken over Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd (SYABAS) on Oct 15 last year and immediately replaced the senior management team.

"Records show that TNB had requested for this urgent maintenance more than a year ago.

"It was first scheduled for the month of September 2016 but was moved to early December at the request of Air Selangor and Syabas due to the numerous unscheduled water cuts that happened at that time, caused by burst pipes and water contamination," it added.

The water supply disruption is due to maintenance of TNB sub-station at Bukit Badong, Kuala Selangor which caused water treatment plants to halt operations.

The disruption of water supply affects consumers in Petaling, Klang, Shah Alam, Gombak, Kuala Langat, Hulu Selangor, Kuala Selangor and Kuala Lumpur.

The team said at a meeting on Oct 31 this year, TNB's urgent maintenance was again postponed to the current controversial Dec 19 date at the request of Air Selangor and Syabas as they had their own scheduled downtime on Dec 6 for certain upgrades.

It said it was also the responsibility of Syabas or any end-user of critical public infrastructure to have back-up generators and contingency plans in case of any scheduled or unscheduled power outages - for example, in the event of a sudden broken power cable.

"Tenaga-supplied generation sets had been loaned to power the surrounding areas of the power plants during this scheduled down-time.

"However, Tenaga has explained its generation sets were incompatible with the older-generation power system of the water plants," it added.

Syabas has explained its own generators were inadequate to fully power its own plants - defeating the purpose of having back-up generators in the first place.

"For reasons best known to themselves, despite being aware of this TNB requirement for over a year and despite postponing this twice, Syabas did not take the initiative to secure adequate power-generation sets - either by procuring new ones or via rental.

"The reality that YB Teresa Kok continues to refuse to accept is that yesterday, the Selangor menteri besar had already admitted the decision for the date was made by the Selangor Government," said the team.

On Sunday, Kok was reported to have blamed TNB, federal government and the energy, green technology and water ministry over the water cut, describing it as insensitive as it was close to the Christmas celebrations.

The TNB maintenance work was completed by midnight and the Sungai Selangor water treatment plants (Phase 1, 2, and 3) are back in operation.

Efforts are being undertaken to restore the water supply earlier than Dec 24 (Saturday), which is the original date anounced. - BERNAMA