It is indeed very saddening that in this age of modern Malaysia, I have to rely on rain water for cooking, drinking and bathing as well as for toilet uses. All this all, because of a severe water problems faced by my housing area in Taman Dahlia, Bandar Tun Razak, Cheras. This is especially so, on my row of houses on Jalan 35/154.

Almost every other week, some Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor (Puspel) contractors will be digging up the road on Jalan 2/154 near the NSK supermarket. It is always on the very same stretch of road. If we were to ask Puspel, the standard answer is that “Paip lama, biasa pecah la”. but the question is that, why the very same road every single time?

And each time repair works are being done, we have to suffer and endure endless water disruption to our housing area. By the time the water reaches our home, it is usually 18-25 hours after the other residential areas have received their water supply. Even then, water pressure is extremely low as will be mentioned below.

Due to this, we are always arguing with Puspel and they routinely will be giving us the same runaround. I am facing the worst now, where my house has been totally without water supply for two weeks now after a Puspel contractor, Jalur Cahaya Sdn Bhd, made repair works on that stretch of road.

I have been in contact with a director of Puspel and an engineer. Calls to both their mobiles are usually not answered and now, I am only able to be in contact with them via Whatsapp. The frustrating part is replies from both are exact replicas of each other and never settle our woes.

According to the director, as the repair works was done by Jalur Cahaya Sdn Bhd, we should contact them. Calls to Jalur Cahaya on the weekend are met with an automated machine informing us that operating hours are Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm only. This only infuriates and irritates us as residents further, as there seems to be no one around to help us.

My report number to Puspel is 153468905. After two weeks, on the night of Monday, April 27, 2015 at about 11pm, a staff member of Jalur Cahaya came over to my house. He placed a PSI meter (pressure gauge) and exclaimed that our house water pressure is too low and is insufficient to even enter the house from the water meter.

He then checked the main water airlock to our housing area, and realised that the total water pressure to my housing area is too low, resulting in which the water supply being insufficient and not flowing through to the houses on my street. He went on to check the main server pipe and there, it read a higher pressure level. This was relayed back to me at about midnight.

On Tuesday (April 28, 2015), from morning, Jalur Cahaya staff were in and around my housing area trying to resolve the issue. At about 5am on that day, one of the Jalur Cahaya staff members told me that it is possible to draw water from another housing estate to my housing row. The whole day, their staff kept coming and leaving my house as nothing seems to work and the water pressure is still insufficient.

The engineer took this opportunity to wash his hands off by stating that, “Kawasan ini undulating and tail end kepada system. Ini paip lama and tekanan dikawal untuk mengelakkan paip pecah.” This exact reply was repeated by the director. I have both their Whatsapp messages with me. The question here is that, why wasn’t any remedial action taken earlier to repair the old pipes?

This is in a stark contrast to the continuous digging to replace/repair those pipes. If the pipes were too old, and they were aware of it, why wasn’t anything done about it sooner?

Like avoiding feeding the cat as the bowl is too old

I am perplexed by the stupidity of the answer that the pressure is lowered to avoid the taps breaking off. Don’t tell me that the pressure has to be lowered to such an extent that it can't even flow into houses just to safeguard those old pipes. Its like avoiding feeding the cat with milk as the bowl is too old and may not contain the milk.

I am really angry and ashamed of the quality of service rendered by Syabas/Puspel, whereas every minister and especially the prime minister harps on quality of service to the people.

Even Jalur Cahaya's proposal of creating a new pipeline from the nearby housing estate has been shot down by their CEO on April 29, 2015. Their CEO instead said that the problem is in the piping and has instructed their staffs to run further tests on April 29.

Looks like my house will be totally out of water supply for the next month or year or decades till Puspel/Syabas/Jalur Cahaya is able to rectify the problem. Till then I will be living under the tree outside my house with my family and showering using buckets of rain water.

And mind you, this is not a one-off incident but happens almost every other week and I have to continue my rant here all over again. Strangely and I am not shooting off blanks here, I have been facing this problem ever since Pakatan had taken over the water concession and their grand schemes of water restructuring are only making the people suffer.

I hope that the Selangor government, its advisers, Puspel, Syabas, Jalur Cahaya and anyone else to add to the mix to sit down and come up with a permanent and long-standing solution for the people. Please buck up on the quality of service. It is shameful that in the present modern Malaysia, the people have to suffer like this.