I think a lot of Malaysians feel cheated by IWK after the recent announcement by the Minister for Natural Resources and Environment Azmi Khalid that the major pollutant of our rivers is raw sewage. We see extensive advertisements by IWK on how it is treating the sewage for the future of our environment.

Every six months, Malaysian households (monthly for business premises) have to pay sewerage charges and if they default they would be threatened with legal notices. In a lot of cases, the charges is absurd as the sewage bill is more than the water bill!

What are we actually paying for? We are paying IWK to treat our sewage and dispose of it in a safe condition that would not harm the environment. But in a lot of cases, the sewage is actually partially, or in extreme cases, not treated at all and disposed into the watercourses.

This causes the condition of the watercourses, especially the rivers, to deteriorate. This is a very irresponsible act by IWK. To certain extent, IWK is cheating the public. We just need to look at the sewage treatment plants maintained by IWK. Most are in deplorable state. These are due to poor maintenance and operation.

Whenever there are complaints in the media on the ineptness of IWK, the company is quick to blame the public for not paying their sewage bills promptly and that this causes IWK problems in maintaining it services.

Yes, IWK. You can fool the public but the truth is due to be out. You just need to look at the IWK organisational structure. It is run like a big corporation with a manager director, general managers, senior managers, managers etc. There is not one GM but more than 10 GMs. Not only are these GMs fed with cars but there are also other perks.

The managerial levels are also provided with perks that will make other companies blush. I would not want to touch on the management wages but heard that the amount offered is high.

My point is that the major portion of the collection from sewage bills goes towards paying the management. Do we need such a 'fat' management? What is important is not a fat management but a lean management with more workers. Till IWK realises this and pays more attention to its core business of operating and maintaining sewage plants , we are bound to have substandard service.

I call upon the government to request IWK to attach with its consumer bills the relevant sewage plant laboratory analysis. Say a person stays in SS14, Selangor then he should receive his bill together with a laboratory analysis of the SS14 sewage treatment plant to indicate whether the discharge from the plant complies with the environmental requirement.

If it fails, then the consumer will not need to pay the sewage bill. Why are we paying the sewage bill if our sewage is not being treated properly. Is it to pay for IWK's fat management?