KUALA LUMPUR, 21 JAN: The impact of water supply disruptions in the Klang Valley for more than two weeks are still being felt by the residents of several apartments and flats in Bandar Tun Razak, who recounted the painful experiences they had to endure.
Because of the lack of elevators, residents from Seri Melaka flats were forced to haul water up to the fourth floor.
“The absence of water was difficult…until school children and senior citizens had swollen feet. There was even a miscarriage,” said Che Menah Che Mat, an occupant of the flats concerned.
“The issue of hauling water from the ground floor to the fourth floor. Before reaching the fourth floor, only a quarter of the water is left,” she told TV Selangor.
Occupants from the said flats were among the half a million residents from Ampang, Cheras and Gombak who were without water supply from 29 December till 15 January.
It was due to pump failures at the Wangsa Maju pump house managed by the Selangor Water Supply Company (Syabas – Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor).
Investigations of the Selangor Water Monitoring Committee found that the pump failure was due to the failure of Syabas in maintaining them properly.
Yesterday, 30 occupants of the aforementioned flats held a demonstration to condemn Syabas negligence which resulted in inconvenience to them.
Another resident, Hisham Abbas who lives at the Sri Penara apartments said that sometimes water that Syabas sends through tankers were found to be murky and dirty.
According to Hisham, their elevator broke down because it was overused to carry water to homes.
“We had to haul water from the ground floor to the top with malfunctioned elevators. First two (of three elevators) then all elevators broke down. We had to use the stairs.
“Syabas has lots of money, even their CEO’s salary is by the thousands. But they sent a small tanker. Unlike the tankers sent by (Chief Minister) Tan Sri Abdul Khalid, large tankers.
“But the ones that they (Syabas) sent, the water was mostly dirty and murky,” added Hisham.
Mohamad Saiful from Cendana apartments said that Muslims faced difficulties in performing ablutions for the Friday prayers at the An-Najihin Mosque two weeks ago.
He commended the swift action by the Bandar Tun Razak Member of Parliament’s Office for supplying a water tank for the use of the public on that day.
“I thank the Selangor Government and the Monitoring Committee for personally going to the ground to attend to people’s needs (turun padang) and to see for themselves what was happening, altogether putting pressure for the situation to be restored.
“This is a clear mistreatment towards residents and it is clear that Syabas is inefficient seeing that water is a basic necessity of life,” he said.