Selangor Menteri Besar Khalid Ibrahim revealed that the state ruler, Sultan Sharifuddin Idris Shah has thrown his weight behind the Pakatan-led government in reclaiming water management in the state.

khalid ibrahim selangor water Revealing this during his speech at Pakatan’s first anniversary celebration in Stadium Malawati, Shah Alam last night, Khalid said that he “had an audience with the sultan and he advised me to give back the water assets to the people”.

“And I agreed with him. This is one of my responsibilities as an executive councillor member and this is my promise that I should keep.

“Whenever we drink the water, we should remember where we get it from. And it should be brought back to the people of Selangor,” said Khalid to a cheering crowd of 4,000 people.

On the same note, he added, this has to be done in accordance with RM50 billion stimulus package that was announced by the state government previously.

One of the package breakdowns is to “upgrade and replace water assets following the assets takeover by Pengurusan Aset Air Berhad (PAAB)”.

“We must give back what belongs to the people. This is not politics...but what the Selangor people own is RM9 billion worth of assets while the water concessionaires only own RM5 billion.

Khalid added that if the state manages all of the water assets, we would not face any hike in water tariffs and the people can still enjoy the 20 cubic metres of free water.

Span threw a spanner into negotiations

Initially, the Selangor government had offered RM5.184 billion to Puncak Niaga Sdn Bhd, a 70 per cent shareholder of Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd (Syabas) and Syarikat Pengeluar Air Sungai Selangor Sdn Bhd (Splash).

In total, Selangor was offering RM5.7 billion to take over the complete assets of Selangor's four concessionaires Puncak Niaga, Syabas, Splash and Konsortium Abass Sdn Bhd (Abass).

However, a couple of days before the concessionaires were due to respond, the water restructuring exercise regulatory body, National Water Service Commission (Span) announced that the federal government would directly negotiate with the water concessionaires to wrap up the deal.

water paips Several reports have indicated that the federal government, through the Span-owned PAAB, was offering RM9 billion to the four concessionaires.

The Selangor government has since accused the federal government of reneging its Jan 18, 2008, commitment to allow the state to handle water restructuring on its own.

Although Selangor was given the green light to lead the talks to nationalise the state's water assets, the federal government’s intervention to scrap the state government offer from the negotiations resulted in the concessionaires rejecting Selangor's first offer.

Various non-governmental groups, seeing red over the exclusion of the state in talks, have voiced their suspicions that the federal government and the Energy, Water and Communication Ministry were favouring the concessionaires rather than the well-being of the people.