SHAH ALAM, 14 Apr: The State Government will consider the exemption of water rationing at high-rise buildings because these areas often experience water supply outages.

The Chief Minister, Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim, said this will be presented to the State Government Secretary, who is also the Chairman of the Water Committee, Datuk Khusrin Munawi.

He said that so far, the only few places excluded are government buildings, government hospitals and industries.

“However, we will discuss if high-rise buildings need to be excluded because water channeling is done physically, so it requires additional employees.

“I will present this to Khusrin so that these places are given priority,” he said in th winding-up session of the discussion on the additional supply Bill at the Selangor State Assembly yesterday.

The proposal was presented by Haniza Talha (PKR-Taman Medan) and R Rajiv (DAP-Bukit Gasing).

At the same time, Abdul Khalid said that the water rationing will continue in the long term because the State Government plans to open reservoirs to face critical stages, including plans to use groundwater.

“At the moment, the rationing measure is better because we still expect high rainfall. So far, we plan to open 37 reservoirs and 10 underground water areas that can be used.

“The plan is still under review by the committee,” he said.

Abdul Khalid said that at the moment, the Sungai Selangor dam recorded 60 percent of usage by the residents of the Klang Valley, making it to be the most important. However, the level of new dams is at 40 percent.

“If the dams reach 50 percent, the water rationing will be stopped. We do not have to wait till it reached 55 percent because it is currently the rainy season,” he said.