SHAH ALAM, 14 Jan: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak is allegedly deliberately refusing to hand over the management of water services to Selangor for fear that the State Government will be more efficient and cost effective.
Selangor Chief Minister, Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim said that the efficiency of the State Government will prove the failure of Umno-BN in managing this important utility.
Abdul Khalid said that the proposed water rationing in July last year by the Selangor Water Supply Company (Syabas – Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor ) was puzzling.
“(We) are not ruling out the possibility that it was deliberately done to inconvenience the people and to cultivate an attitude of dissatisfaction towards the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) Government.
“Umno-BN would rather defend the corny concession company which has evidently failed and negligent in managing water services than to cooperate with the State Government to take over the management of water services,” he said in a statement today.
Meanwhile, Abdul Khalid said that Syabas in now faced with a management crisis which could bring about great trouble for the people should this concession be further allowed to manage water in the Klang Valley.
In fact, Najib should be working with all parties, including the State Government, to ensure that this matter does not repeat.
Instead, he (Najib) has threatened that the people of Selangor will continue to face water problems if they do not support Umno-BN in the upcoming 13th General Elections (GE-13).
In the meantime, the people of Selangor will be informed of the latest information of the State Government’s efforts to help restore the water supply for Klang Valley in several major multilingual newspapers tomorrow.
The information will enable the public to know the measures taken by the State Government to restore the water supply to more than 28,000 consumers in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur who have been affected since early this year.
This is a result of monitoring and daily meetings of the Selangor State Water Supply Monitoring Committee with Syabas, Local Authorities (PBT) in Selangor and other parties involved.
Chairman of the Selangor State Water Supply Monitoring Committee, Datuk Mohamed Khusrin Munawi has also been monitoring Syabas daily regarding the action plan and the recovery of water in some of the affected areas.