Pakatan Rakyat leaders are taking the fight for Selangor’s water rights straight to the people, using small-scale talks to spread the word on the state government’s case in the long-drawn tussle with the federal government and water concessionaire Syabas.

NONE Water Review Panel member Tony Pua ( right ) said this is part of a multi-pronged approach to help the Pakatan-led state government’s efforts to take over control of Selangor’s water industry.   

“We will organise talks for 50 to 70 people at a time. I’ve gone to Malay kampungs, and also Chinese new villages and we are mobilising all over the state,” he said at one such briefing at the MBPJ office in Petaling Jaya today.

The talks complement the state government’s recently launched signature campaign, aimed at getting 100,000 signatures in support of the state’s petition on its water takeover bid.

Selangor executive councillor Teresa Kok said the campaign will be capped with a rally they plan to organise at Istana Negara on Dec 5, when they intend to present the petition to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin.

Apart from posting the petition online , Pakatan leaders will be going down to the ground asking the public to become signatories. Kok herself will visit the Jinjang Utara public market at 9am tomorrow to get as many people as possible to sign the petition.

charles santiago water bill issue 020207 reply Earlier during today’s talk, Klang MP Charles Santiago ( left ) revealed that the state government is in the midst of seeking water industry experts both locally and internationally, in anticipation of success in their take over bid.

He said the recruitment drive is a pre-emptive move to ensure the state has the right people to take over from the current Syabas management should the situation present itself.

“I can’t reveal much more than that for now because it is still a strategic discussion, but I can say that the state government has already started looking (for expertise) for a few months.

“The expertise may not only come from this region, but also other areas where there is expertise in managing water industries, including Europe,” he said during the question and answer session.

Cabinet previously approved state takeover

The talk today, attended by around 30 people, traced the history of Selangor’s water industry from before the privatisation plans that took place in 1996 through to the current three-way standoff between the state, the federal governments and Syabas.

syabas logo Syabas has so far been resistant to takeover bids from both state and federal governments, rejecting Selangor’s RM9.29 billion offer in July last year and also the federal government’s RM10.3 billion offer made towards the end of 2009.

The state has accused Syabas of failing to fulfil requirements under the concession agreement, using that as a basis to freeze a 37 percent hike in Selangor’s water tariff that was scheduled to take place last year in accordance with the agreement.

The Selangor government has also criticised its federal counterpart of not supporting the takeover bid now, despite having in the past made a cabinet decision – prior to the March 8, 2008 political tsunami when Pakatan took over Selangor and four other states – to give control of water back to the state.

The federal government meanwhile argued that the state is being uncooperative and deliberately stalling development projects aimed at boosting Selangor’s allegedly flagging water supply, such as the RM9 billion Pahang-Selangor raw water transfer project .