Selayang Residents Voice Their Anger To Syabas

6.1

SELAYANG, 15 JAN: A dialogue session to explain the disruption of water supply in Selayang among residents with the Selangor Water Supply Company (Syabas – Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor) filed to calm the anger of residents that could not accept excuses from the company.

The session which was held yesterday saw the residents of Selayang Jaya, Selayang Baru and Selayang Height, voicing their dissatisfaction to Syabas representative, Gombak branch Senior Executive (Technical), Rahmat Bidin.

Among the reasons given by Syabas regarding the water supply problems that have been going on since six months ago is the freezing of the Capital Expenditure (Capex) programme by the State Government and the process of replacing old pipes that takes time.

Supply disruptions worsened a few weeks ago, when the old pipes in the area burst.

Resident Fakaruddin Tahir who complained that the water pressure in his house was too high said that the Syabas representative failed to respond to his complaint.

“What I ask, sir did not answer,” Fakaruddin was quoted saying to three Syabas officers.

When met after the session, Fakaruddin reiterated his stance that Syabas was not sensitive towards problems in Selayang.

“The cause was because Syabas acted slowly in solving the problem. Now, when problems like pipes bursting arise, they gave all sorts of reasons,” said Fakaruddin.

For Loh Thiam Fook, Syabas failed to use the funds that have been allocated to the company.

“I do not know what was done by Syabas seeing that the RM250 million grant was given for the work process of Non-Revenue Water (NRW).

“It is not right that Syabas did not solve this water supply problem,” he said.

Before that, Selayang MP, William Leong Jee Keen told participants of the session that the Federal Government had given a RM24 billion grant for management works of the water industry.

“Syabas in a private company that is making profits, they were even given the provision of a RM24 billion grant by the Federal Government.

William also refuted claims by Syabas that the State Government had frozen the Capex to Syabas.

He said that the State Government also pays Syabas for every 20 cubic metres of free water worth RM11.44 which is given to the people.

“The reason of the 40-year-old pipes is also not acceptable because why was this problem not resolved before 2008 when they (Syabas) took over the water supply business,” said William.

This was the response to Rahmat who said that the water supply disruptions were due to the 40-year-old pipes and the replacement process of old pipes to new that takes time.

“We also gave priority for this solution according to critical areas first.

“The process of conversion and refurbishment has been going on since 2007 when Syabas began to take over the water operations in 2005, however this had to be halted when the State Government froze the capital spending in 2008,” he said.

6.2
6.3

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.